The Sequel
by crazyyesterday
Summary: so if y'all read the first one, this one'll make sense. there's a link to the first and to where i also post it in the first part :- enjoy
1. Chapter 1

so the final vote for a sequel was 36-1 that means y'all get a sequel :-) here are the links i was talking about:

username: goingcrazy (it's in my blog there)

.net/secure/story/story_?storyid=4825516&chapter=1 if you can't see it here, or this site doesn't work, just go to my stories and click the one that's not this one :-) enjoy y'all :-)

"Max!!" Nudge whined. "Help me! I can't get my leg high enough!" I turned, grinding my teeth to keep from snapping at her tone. We were practicing our kicks, me and Nudge. We had been at it for hours. Why were we practicing very advanced martial arts on the beach of an isolated Greek island? Well if you DON'T know, then why in the world are you reading this book first? Go read the first five books and then we'll talk.

"Have you been stretching your muscles everyday?" I asked. Nudge presented me with a sheepish face. Aha.

"Honey you'll never be able to get your leg high enough for a good roundhouse if you don't get your leg muscles used to that sort of stretch." She nodded, looking disappointed.

"Max!!" I sighed and turned to see who needed my attention now. It had been like this the ENTIRE time we'd been on the island. EVERYONE needed me for some reason or another. This time it was Jeb. What did he want?

"I guess we're done for today. I don't want you to hurt yourself because you didn't prepare. Go help Iggy and Ella find some firewood."

"Um... Can I just go gather some food instead?"

"Whatever. Just do something useful that does NOT involve gossiping about me and Fang, understood?" She giggled, nodded, and took off, flying for another part of the island. How is she flying? GO READ THE FIRST FIVE DARN BOOKS ALREADY!!!

"What is it, Jeb?" I said, moving to look at him as he approached.

"Iggy's having some trouble with his sight again. You're the best at calming him down," Jeb answered.

"I thought he was collecting firewood with Ella?"

"He was, but then Ella brought him back because he wouldn't open his eyes."

"Okay, I'm coming." Jeb nodded and took off at a jog, forcing me to speed up to keep up with him. Iggy had been having a hard time adjusting to being able to see again. The poor guy. He was just so used to being blind that the idea of sight was almost foreign to him and just as terrifying. Sometimes, he would, I guess you could call it, 'have a sight overload' and start panicking. So far, I'd been the only one able to calm him down, though having Ella around seemed to help. It worried me and also REALLY made me ticked off at the whitecoats who had done this to him. Who are the whitecoats? Do I really have to say it again?

"Max, Max," Ella gasped when I followed Jeb into Iggy's hut, "I don't know what caused it. He just started moaning and wouldn't open his eyes." Ella looked close to tears and I sent her a reassuring smile before walking to Iggy who was curled up in the corner like one of those crazy people at the insane asylum.

"Iggy? Iggy, honey. It's me, Max. I'm here." Iggy reached out for me with unerring precision and I cradled him in my lap, something that a calm Iggy would never allow. I cooed and muttered nonsense things, rocking slightly.

"Max," he sobbed. "It's jus-just too much! Everything's green and bright and colorful. It's too much."

"I know, Ig. I know. Just take it easy all right?" He nodded and set his face against my neck. I looked helplessly around the room. I was GREAT at taking care of the little ones when they cried, but a crying Iggy? That was almost unheard of, until recently. He had told me on the plane flight to Athens that he missed his blindness. I just hoped that wouldn't last too long.

Fang appeared in the doorway of the hut, watching with serious, sorrowful eyes. I shared his look as I stroked Iggy's hair. His strawberry blond roots were starting to show. Soon the rest of the flock showed up, all watching nervously as I comforted Iggy. Apparently training had stopped when both teachers disappeared. Eventually Iggy calmed down enough for me to tie a blindfold around his head and lay him down to sleep, exhausted from adrenaline and fear. The flock returned to their previous activities with heavy hearts.

"Max," Jeb said, nodding to indicate that I should follow him. We walked to his hut and Jeb sat down at his makeshift desk. It had taken FOREVER to build anything usable, but he had insisted on having a desk. I mean, it's not like he can have a computer out here. Anything that he did bring would have to be charged and there's obviously no electricity.

"Iggy is getting better," he stated, sorting through some papers. I felt angry Max appear, rearing up in me.

"Better? You call that better?" I yelled, gesturing towards the door. "He was BAWLING Jeb. That's not better." I started pacing.

"It is better, because he cried for a shorter period of time and his reaction was better even compared to the last time he had a panic attack," Jeb stated. I glared.

"Look, Max," he said, pausing. "This is NATURAL. When blind people are operated on, and have their sight returned to them, it takes them a while to adjust.. Panic attacks are natural and getting used to the idea takes time. Just be patient."

"I'll be patient, Jeb. I have to be. But I don't think the others can stand to watch Iggy like that again. That isn't LIKE him and they know it. Iggy isn't the only one getting hurt. They're smart kids, Jeb. They know SOMETHING'S wrong, you know?" He sighed, nodded and crossed his fingers, elbows on the desk.

"I know, sweetheart, but there's nothing we can do about that. It's a small island. Just be patient and we'll do our best, okay?"

"Ya, ya. And don't call me that. I'm still mad at you." Jeb chuckled as I stalked out of the hut, huffing with anger and annoyance. I was starting to forgive him for all the stuff he'd put me and the flock through, but that didn't mean I'd put up with his father act.

"Max!!" I ground my teeth and went to help Total with whatever it was he needed. Being flock leader was a 24/7 job, but MAN my name was starting to get annoying.


	2. Chapter 2

I spent the rest of the day, helping the flock out with their chores and training and whatever petty fights they ended up in, glad on some level for Jeb's reassurance about Iggy's reaction being natural. I hoped it was, and that he would get over it soon. The flock never notice any difference about me. I was still bossy, stubborn, angry, worried Max to all but Fang. He knew me too well, almost like a mind reader, but even Angel didn't know the whole truth. I was willing to bet the whole island we lived on that Fang knew it all and more that even I didn't know yet.

Speaking of Fang, it was after midnight only half an hour after I had done the bedtime stack and finally put them to bed, when he appeared on the sand next to me, watching the Greek night for intruders. I jumped, smiled, and leaned against him, laying my head on his shoulder. I could fall asleep like this. Well, actually I could fall asleep on a bed of needles like those guys in India or wherever lay for meditation, but that's not the point.

"You need sleep, Max," Fang whispered. Reading my mind like always.

"I need to keep watch. I'm okay." Of course the effect was ruined by a HUGE yawn right at the end. Fang chuckled and kissed my head.

"I'll keep watch. Go to bed, okay?"

"But you've been up as long as I have," I argued.

"Yeah, but I haven't been, training, exercising, fighting, yelling, and comforting a crying Iggy all day." I smiled, but shook my head. Stubborn. That's me.

"How 'bout this. What if you sleep out here with me while I keep watch and you'll be the first one awake if anything happens," Fang suggested. It sounded reasonable, but once again, I'm stubborn.

"But-"

"Go to sleep, Max. I got you." To emphasize his point, he put his arm around me so my head settled in his armpit, comfortable and warm. Right then I yawned, AGAIN.

"Oh all right," I grumbled. "Just don't let me sleep through an attack just because you think I need sleep." Fang gave me a wonderful, rare, full laugh and agreed.

"I promise."

"Good."

"You know, I always thought living on our own island would be relaxing," he said.

"Looks like you thought wrong," I mumbled, already halfway to sleep. It took only moments after I was sure my flock was safe for the night for me to fall asleep with my head pillowed in Fang's lap.


	3. Chapter 3

Iggy was especially embarrassed the next day, hardly speaking to anybody. It really wasn't like him to bawl in front of people or at all really. Natural Iggy behavior was being embarrassed about doing so. This made me hopeful. Especially when he started teasing me and Fang about lying on the beach together. Oh, don't worry. Fang didn't fall asleep on the job. Apparently he had just moved to a more comfortable position that wouldn't make his legs fall asleep. Well, that better be why he was laying curled around my back with his arm around my waist when I woke up to squeals of delight from Nudge, Angel, and Ella. Else, I'd kill him, or at least, brutally harm him.

"Max!!" Nudge called. "I stretched last night and this morning and I STILL can't get my leg high enough." I groaned.

"Nudge, Rome wasn't built in a day."

"Huh?"

"She means you're not gonna grow super flexible muscles in one night, even if you do stretch. It takes time," Fang explained. Today was one of our rare training sessions in which the whole flock participated. I was teaching the flock while Jeb taught me. He would ONLY teach me and occasionally help me figure out how to train the others, but it was his 'priority' to make sure I was ready for my mission.

Now I'm really getting tired of this, so I'll only say it once more: read the first books! However I will explain to you what my mission was, if only because I don't want to pass up this wonderful opportunity to sound absolutely nuts. My mission in life, was to save the entire world, as told by the Voice in my head, which is actually the combined voices of me and the flock about ten years in the future, somehow using their mutated powers to talk to me through my mind. See? Told you I sounded crazy. Anyhow, back to the story.

I smiled at Fang, thankful that I didn't have to explain yet ANOTHER phrase or saying. Where had my kids' worldliness gone? They've been all over the US, been in parts of Europe, Antarctica, and now Greece. They should understand at least SOME of the sayings. I led them through a series of kicks and punches, assuring and encouraging them when they weren't quite flexible enough or enthusiastic enough to perfect the moves. We would be a regular little army. Doesn't that make a mama flock leader proud? I smiled, thinking about it. Soon, my flock would be able to fight any baddie and come out on top, despite our lazy months with the CSM.

"Lunch!" Mom yelled, poking her head out of the larger community hut where we talked, ate, and occasionally slept depending on the weather. No one wanted to be alone in our flimsy little huts when a big storm hit. The flock immediately broke off from their uniform practicing and rushed towards Mom and the smell of food.

"Looks like they're hungry," Fang said, quietly, but cheerfully. I nodded.

"Aren't you?"

"Nah. I stole some snacks from the kitchen and had some fruit when I was collecting the firewood."

"Must've been a lot of fruit, or a lot of snacks," I commented, and moved across the beach, cleaning up some of less-than-fortunate practice dummies, before turning to the community hut. Fang laughed as he helped me with the dummies.

"Hey, wanna skip lunch and keep practicing? I've been dying for a real fight instead of these invisible adversaries and stuffed people."

"You're the one that's already eaten. I'm starving," I replied.

"We can get some food after. Come on, Max. I'm ready for a real challenge," he said, voice pleading. I grinned, probably wider and more sly than a Cheshire cat.

"Well, if you're ready to be destroyed, I'm all for it. You know I fight better when I'm hungry." Fang grinned too.

"I was expecting it."

We stopped by the community hut to tell everybody what we were doing and then flew to a beach on the other side of the island. While Mom was all cool with just about everything, she didn't like seeing any of the flock fighting each other, even if it was just for practice. As soon as we landed, Fang came at me, black belt martial arts moves and grinning the whole time. You can bet I was grinning just as broadly.


	4. Chapter 4

I swung a roundhouse kick which Fang easily dodged. His smirk said he had expected it. That's what comes of having a signature move. I quickly rid him of that smug smile with a feint left and another SIGNATURE roundhouse kick to his head. I was glad Fang could handle blows like that, or else he'd be dead and I'd feel horrible.

"Hey," he said, surprised. I laughed.

"You gotta keep up, F-nick." He laughed too and we met again exchanging blows and kicks, though only a few ever hit their marks. It was kind of like sword-fighting which I'd seen on some of the movies that played on cable in hotel rooms, but our kind of fighting was more brutal and more precise. If we hit in the wrong spot, it would do nothing but cause a flicker of pain, while if you missed your mark with a sword, you at least got an open wound.

Fang's fist connected with my skull and in return I slammed my foot into his gut, a regular forward kick this time. When he bent over, winded, I wrapped my arms around his waist and attempted to pick him up. Instead, Fang recovered his breath and stood up straight, grabbing my hips so I went up with him. I was now hanging upside down along Fang's back. He paused, thinking how to use this position to his advantage.

I took that pause to bite whatever was in front of me, which turned out to be his butt, and then when his fingers loosened in surprise flipped off of his back and onto my feet where I spun around and ducked, swinging my foot out to knock his feet out from under him. He went down like a sack of bricks and didn't get up. Immediately worry set in.

"Fang, are you okay?" I asked, moving so I was kneeling beside him. "Did I hurt you for real?" Oh no. I felt relief flood me when Fang propped himself up on his arms and turned his head to look at me, real shock in his face.

"You bit my butt," he said. I felt a blush and chewed on my lip.

"Um... Yeah. It was the only thing I could reach and biting surprises attackers. Remember? Jeb taught us that." The blush deepened as he turned all the way over and sat facing me, still surprised.

"Yeah, but I don't think he meant the butt. Would you have done that on a real attacker?"

"Maybe. It seemed to work real well on you. Is the fight over now?" Fang shook his head in disbelief, laughed, and then shook his head again.

"I guess so. Call it a draw," he replied. I rolled my eyes.

"I won, Fang. I could've killed you or knocked you out while you were laying on the ground still trying to figure out if I bit your butt or not." He smirked.

"But then, I could've gotten you when you came over and asked if I was okay."

"I wouldn't have ASKED if you were okay if you were a real bad guy. I thought I really hurt you," I argued.

"Okay, okay. You won, but only if I can tell the others what you did that won the fight," he retorted, smiling. I groaned.

"Oh, all right!"

"I thought you'd say so," he said, before putting his hand on the back of my head and pulling me close for a kiss. Intolerable behavior, all of it, but MAN Fang could kiss. I melted into his arms and kissed him back, both of us being careful to avoid any bruises that might have cropped up during the fight.

With our faces only inches away from each other, Fang said, "We should probably get you something to eat now." I nodded reluctantly and we both got up, ruffling our wings before taking off. I just hoped Angel wouldn't read our minds when we got back. Oh boy.

hehehe :-) so guys, if you haven't realized it yet, i'm starting the sequel out with funny, romantic, not of dire consequence scenes because i've had several people ask for that and i REALLY want to play with the fact that they're finally on an isolated island. there'll be more drama (of more dire consequence) and more faxness later on, so don't worry about the whole thing being like this and boring, okay? it'll get there.


	5. Chapter 5

The next few days were just like the last few months on the island, all work and no play for Maximum Ride. I was constantly either watching the little ones while they had fun to make sure they didn't get hurt, training them, being trained by Jeb, and spending most nights keeping watch. People had tried to follow Jeb and Mom here and I was always worried that they might come. Then there was my mission. The Voice had said that taking a break for training was fine, but I don't know. It had sounded... apprehensive. Which of course only made me more paranoid than ever, especially with my training being relearned. Most of training to fight bad guys and run for our lives is ALWAYS be paranoid, because it just might save your life. The reason this day stuck out more than the others was that Jeb was trying to convince us to let him go to the mainland for supplies.

"Max, you know we're running out of stuff here. The kids are growing up and need bigger and cleaner clothes. I'm running out of paper and Iggy and Valencia are running out of cooking supplies." Jeb was following me as I moved through the huts, tidying everything up and putting everyone's, admittedly still dirty, laundry folded on their beds. Hey, don't blame me. All we had here was an ocean and one fresh water source which we couldn't use for anything but drinking if we wanted to stay here and stay healthy.

"No, Jeb. It's not safe. Until we know for sure that you really lost those people following you or we're ready to leave the island for good, everyone stays here. Fang and I can fly out to the island at night and grab some stuff, but we can only do that a few times before someone catches on." I grimaced at the basket of dirty laundry Gazzy had left me as I picked it up and dumped the clothes into the much larger basket I would bring with me to where we (more like just me, the lazy little brats) washed our clothes.

"Max," he said, trying again.

"Come on, Jeb. You know better than that. You're the one who taught me all about covert ops," I interrupted and moved on to the next hut.

"I did, but we need supplies."

"If it gets to the point where we can't do anything without supplies, than I'll get the flock together so we can carry back more stuff. You, Ella, and Mom are to stay here where no one can recognize you, okay?" Hey, bossing around my father was kinda fun!

"All right, Max. But don't put the trip off too long." I rolled my eyes and took off, lugging everyone's laundry with me. Flying with the giant basket was much easier than walking with it, no matter what you may think. I had gotten Iggy and the Gasman's help to drain all the gas out of the motorboat Jeb, Mom, Ella, and Akila had come in so if anything like this should come up, they wouldn't be able to just up and leave. My pyros were hiding the gas right with all of their other explosives, wherever that was. I just hoped the occasion didn't come up where my non-flock family had to leave fast, but couldn't because the gas was gone.

When I reached the clothes washing part of the wrap-around beach, I sighed in defeat and started on Gazzy's clothes. His would need the longest time in the water. He wasn't name the Gasman for nothing and it would take ages to get the stink out. No offense to Gazzy.


	6. Chapter 6

About a week later, Jeb was still harassing me about going to the mainland, Iggy still hadn't had another attack, and I was still the busiest person on the island. I wish Fang's idea of what island life would be like was the truth, but sigh when are dreams ever as good as real life? I was glad about Iggy though. He had almost two weeks of no panic attacks under his belt, a record as far as I was concerned. Maybe Jeb was right.

Also that week later, was the day Mom had decided would be our regular physical. Oh boy. Ironically my mom was a veterinarian. Har de har. Yuk it up if you want, but it turned out to be a good thing (and sort of an unfortunate thing) that she was because she caught several vitamin and mineral deficiencies in all of us. Turned out we needed more supplies after all. When Mom finished with me (I had voted to go last so the others would get immediate treatment if they needed it. And I was a big coward where doctors were concerned) I sought Jeb out.

"All right," I yelled in exasperation as soon as I saw him. "I'll get the others together and we'll leave tonight. Get a list of what we need written up. Make sure you get the foods from Mom." He jumped in surprise, but was grinning smugly when I left. Whatever.

I organized the 'troops', loaded them all with at least one standard hiking backpack (which has a hollow reinforced aluminum frame and can hold up to one hundred and fifty pounds easily), made sure they were all dressed in solid black clothes (Fang was no problem there), and split the contents on Jeb's list between us. I also made Gazzy and Iggy put the gas back in the boat so they could leave quickly while we were gone. As soon as all of that was settled, I made everyone eat a LARGE meal and then take a nap, asking Mom, Jeb, or Ella to wake us up around midnight. Hopefully that would leave us enough time to fly there, grab enough stuff to fill our needs for a while, and be gone before dawn when most of Greece would be waking up.

As soon as Mom woke us up, my flock lined up, waiting for me to check their preparations and deem them ready to fly. Normally, this wouldn't be necessary, but we were going for a supplies mission, which meant we had to grab as much as we could, as fast as we could, knowing it would be a while before we could come back for more. They had to be in tip-top shape and ready to fly for more than six hours carrying up to one hundred and fifty pounds. Obviously the younger ones wouldn't be allowed to carry that much, but Fang, Iggy, and I would carry that much and more. Fang had even offered to try and levitate some food and supplies back. He'd been practicing and I was willing to let him try, but with a warning that as soon as he felt weak, he was to drop everything held by mutated powers and/or hand Iggy and me his backpack to take turns carrying on the way home. None of us would be able to carry one hundred and fifty pounds plus Fang and his backpack of supplies and I didn't want him dropping unconscious into the ocean.

After my inspection, Mom hugged all of us, whispering assurances and asking us to be careful. I mothered her in return and we all took off, flying into the already almost black night. Flying with a mission that would help us in the long run was almost better than flying for fun. Such was the power of having a purpose.


	7. Chapter 7

Fang soared with the rest of the flock, watching all of them with trained eyes for weakness, but especially Max. It wasn't like her to change her mind so abruptly and fully without good reason. Dr. Martinez had said something about vitamin deficiencies, but wouldn't tell him anymore, saying it was between her and Max who was 'mother' of the flock. Vitamin deficiencies must've been something really bad, though they didn't sound like it.

Fang shook his head quickly, remembering the warmth and comfort of longish hair during flight. His hair still hadn't grown back all the way since the make over by Nudge and wasn't even long enough to cover his ears... or his eyes when he was trying to hide his thoughts from Max and the flock. They flew in silence for hours. Even Nudge kept her big mouth shut. He was glad they understood the importance of being quiet for this mission. Max suddenly swooped around him, knocking wings.

"What's wrong?" Fang asked, immediately. Then he saw Max's mischievous grin and gave her one in return.

"Hey!" he complained. She laughed.

"Don't be so serious," she commanded. "That's my job." Fang smiled and gently touched his wingtip to hers. They flew on and Fang did his best to follow Max's advice. It wasn't that hard, considering how easy life on the island was and that this was only a supplies mission. No bad guys had chased them in AGES which was why the fight a few weeks ago and been great. And the fact that Max had bitten his butt. They really didn't get alone time together anymore. It was a small island after all and she was ALWAYS busy. Maybe he could change that sometime soon.

I scanned the water below us and ahead of us, looking for Greece. We were close, I knew that, but so far nothing. The others were quiet, though I felt the energy and excitement like a powerful undercurrent of emotion. They were happy to get off of our island for awhile. Since we were splitting into groups, I was betting they wouldn't spend ALL their time grabbing supplies.

I was nervous about splitting up. The last time had ended in disaster and we were even going to be in the same place. I think Fang knew because he kept watching me, even though I told him to relax. Then I saw the island and felt both relief and worry settle in my chest at the same time. How is that even possible?

"There it is," I said, using my normal voice and knowing everyone could hear me even with the wind blowing past our ears. "Now follow me. Stay in line and do exactly what I do." I had to resist the urge to give Iggy more specific instructions. He didn't need them anymore. He could see just fine. Oh boy. I dove low, making sure I was never right above a light, always just out of sight. The flock followed me well, like a train engine and its cars. I saw a large dark area and headed for it, swooping lower and lower at a steady rate. It turned out to be a small wooded area. Maybe a park, but I wasn't sure. The flock landed around me, shaking out their wings before folding them away.

It had been awhile since we'd flown for such a long time in one go. I made the flock fly everywhere, even if it was from one hut to the next so they could keep their wings in shape. Then we did several laps around the island every morning, the sandy beaches, making the run even harder so we kept our bodies in shape as well. Then of course there was all the combat training we did. Busy, busy, busy. That's me.

"Split up. Remember to get what's on your list first then, if you have space and can handle the weight, you can get what you want. Necessities first though. Got it?" I said. They nodded at me and took off in their groups. Fang stayed with me. Kids, which was what the others looked like, wouldn't go unnoticed running around on their own this late, but we weren't here to play pretend. We were here to steal stuff and get out. Disguises were pointless except that if anyone was looking for us and happened to be here, this late they wouldn't recognize us right away.

"Come on," I sighed and slunk out of the woods, watching for anyone watching me. Fang followed like a well-trained flock member, watching our back while I watched our front. The best thing to do when you want quality food without getting caught, is to find darkened, unlocked houses, preferably with no car outside, in the driveway, or in the garage, but we could deal if there was one. Then you slipped in through whatever unlocked door or window and raided their kitchen, keeping quiet the whole time in case someone was home. We would use the Max card when the whole flock met up again for stuff we couldn't find, but until then, I was reluctant to use it for many reasons.

One was that I didn't want to leave a paper trail. If anybody knew about the card, they could trace it here, realize we were still somewhere near or on the Greek islands and come after us. Another was that most stores wouldn't even be open this late and the ones that were would think it odd for a whole family to buy six hiking backpacks of food and general supplies at whatever time in the morning.

Fang and I worked together in perfect silence, already knowing each others' movements and thoughts. I didn't understand the connection between us, and sometimes it drove me crazy when I was trying to keep something from Fang, but that didn't mean it wasn't useful. We raided thirteen houses and managed to come up with everything on our list and more. However we still had an hour and a half until we had to meet the flock.

"What time is it?" Fang asked.

"About... four thirty." Fang seemed to jump before grabbing my hand and pulling me along.

"Come on. I told someone to meet us tonight and we're running late," he stated.

"What?" I yelled, then cursed quietly for my loud voice.

"Mike. Remember? The Geek? Remember, he made those passports and id's for us?"

"Yeah, but what's he doing in Greece and why are we meeting him?" I asked.

"He's here because I told him to be here and we're meeting him so we can lead him to our island. He's gonna help us figure things out." I felt another screeching 'what' try to work it's way up my throat, but I swallowed it down and hissed at him instead.

"And how's he supposed to get to our island?"

"He's got a boat."


	8. Chapter 8

I let Fang drag me across town headed towards... _some_where. Mike the Geek here in Greece? It was crazy talk. Why had Fang even told him where we were? And WHAT was he going to help us figure out? As far as I knew, we had no major mysteries on our hands at the moment. Just training, right? But believe it or not, there Mike stood, waiting for us outside of someone's house. Shocking, huh?

"Hey," Fang called as we neared. He was having more and more trouble dragging me the closer we got to Mike. I didn't like it when he pulled stuff like this on me. And what if Mike was a decoy or a bad guy? Paranoid? Me? Naw.

"Hey guys," Mike replied. "Where are the others?"

"Getting supplies. Gonna meet in about an hour," Fang said. The Neanderthal. Couldn't he speak in full sentences around people who WEREN'T me or the flock?

"Well, come on inside. I'm staying here tonight. We can wait inside." Mike turned around and strolled in the house behind him. Whoa! How did he manage to find a place to stay that wasn't a hotel.

"This is my Nana's place," Mike whispered. "I told her I wanted to visit."

"You're Greek?" Fang asked. Notice my silence. Now notice me breaking it.

"If you have family, why do you live on the streets?" I questioned, all suspicion, still standing outside the door, gripping Fang's hand to keep him from going deeper into the house than he was. This didn't feel right at all. How could Fang trust him so much?

_Max, Max, Max._

_Voice! What's going on here? It isn't safe, is it?_

_Very safe, Maximum. Mike is another ally. He'll help you and the flock. Trust him._

_Are you sure?_ Hadn't my gut always told me right? Well, right now it was screaming at me to get the hell out of there.

_Yes._

_What if you're testing me? Don't test me like THIS, Voice. I can't handle it_.I was really panicking here. Maybe we had trained just a little too much.

_It's not a test, Max. You trust me and Fang right?_

_Yeah..._

_And we trust Mike. This is all about trust, Max. Do you trust our judgment?_

_Absolutely_. I answered him without hesitation, something I was surprised about. But then, how could I NOT trust the future flock?

_Then trust Mike._

_All right_. The Voice pulled away and I took a deep breath before letting Fang gently pull me inside. He had probably guessed what was going on and passed it off as claustrophobia to Mike. Or at least, I hoped he had.


	9. Chapter 9

"Welcome to my Nana's humble abode," Mike whispered. "Watch your head." The last was a second to late and I stifled my giggles when Fang bumped his head on a low door frame. At least I was relaxing.

We were walking through a series of nearly bare rooms, each only containing a few chairs, a couch, and maybe a couple of end tables. The walls however were covered in cloth. I couldn't tell what was on them in the semi-dark, but from what I could see, the designs were intricate and well-worked. Mike, Fang, and then me walked in a line through the house, headed towards a light at what I guessed was the back, if my mental compass was correct and it should be since I was two percent bird.

"While we wait, I'll finish getting my stuff together and we can talk," Mike added. I nodded even though I was behind both him and Fang.

"My room. We can speak normally in here." Mike led us into a small room, undecorated except for those cloths, with one twin bed and a nightstand. The giant backpack he had the last time we saw him was sitting by the door. His laptop was out and plugged in.

"Again," I asked, "Why are you living on the streets if you can afford a laptop and a boat?" Mike shrugged and sat on the bed, pulling the computer onto his lap. Fang leaned against the wall opposite the door, by the window I hadn't seen at first because it was covered by cloth just like the rest of the house, and crossed his arms. I settled for standing in the middle of the room and watching Mike on his laptop.

"I prefer having things I can use rather than a place to live. Besides, I don't want to live in Greece permanently and Nana's the only family I have," he explained. My flock was just the opposite. All they wanted was a place they could call home, forever. I shared a look with Fang, then turned my attention to the hanging cloths. They were beautiful, decorated with some technique, so that everyone was different, patterned, scenic, meaningful, some_thing_ that made them purely Greek.

"Why are you coming to our island?" I asked, continuing my questioning. Mike wouldn't get anywhere near our island until _I_ was sure he was safe, despite Fang's and the Voice's judgment.

"Don't you know?"

"Fang wouldn't tell me." I heard the sullen pout in my voice and worked to hide it, knowing Fang's reaction. And yup. There it was. A smug quirk of the lips and a knowing look in his eyes. Did he ENJOY teasing me all the time?

"Are you two always like that?" Mike asked. I shared confused looks with Fang, then answered for both of us.

"What?"

"All cutesy in love. You keep sharing looks and speaking for each other. It's just... blah. Mushy, you know?" he said. I scowled and Fang chuckled.

"We are?" I growled. Mike gulped and stuttered nervously. He was learning who the boss was here.

"Ye- I-I mean n-no. No, no no! Of course not."

"Whatever. Just finish what you got to finish and we can get moving," I scowled, waving him off and turning back to the cloths. Fang chuckled again and I resisted the urge to give him a signal that wouldn't even be allowed in here for the younger ones' benefit.


	10. Chapter 10

"I thought you didn't have to meet them for another hour," Mike said, getting his courage back.

"Yeah, but the meeting place is a bit away and I just had an idea. We could put a bunch of food and supplies in your boat and carry more back to the island. With another mouth to feed, what we have won't be enough and we'll need more building supplies for another hut. Will your boat hold more supplies, or do you already have some in it?"

"Just what I need to get by. I didn't think about that," Mike replied. Of course not.

"Well then pack up. I'll call the others and tell them where to meet us so we can unload and get more." Mike told me where he'd docked, and started wrapping up all the wires for his laptop while I updated the rest of the flock through our cell phones. It was really close to us, but flying would be faster even with Mike and two one hundred and fifty pound backpacks in tow.

"How much do you weigh?" I asked after hanging up.

"What?"

"How much do you weigh?"

"Probably less than three hundred pounds," Fang said, "I'll take our backpacks and the laptop and you take Mike and his backpack."

"Okay. He knows about... us, right?" I asked, being discrete just in case.

"Yeah. Why else would he bring his own boat?" Mike watched our back and forth like a ping pong match then shook his head.

"So what I'm getting from this is that I'm flying with Max?" he asked. I nodded and hefted his backpack onto my back. Less than ours, but still heavy.

"Let's go. We'll take off outside," I said. They nodded and I let Mike lead us out of the house. It was too much of a maze for me to figure out, though I probably could if I really tried. Once in the air, both Fang and I were panting, but surviving the short flight from Mike's Nana's house to his boat. I hoped it was a speed boat or he'd never keep up.

"You know," Fang gasped. "I was just thinking. We coulda pant pant brought pant a lot of backpacks, pant filled them all, and pant you coulda warped everyone pant home."

"Too late now." Short sentences were better for flying with mass weight. No offense to Mike, but I think with he was heavier than Akila. I mean, he was an inch or two taller than me! I was glad I wouldn't have to fly him all the way to the isl- wait did Fang say 'home'? As in, the island is our HOME? When did that happen?

"There it is," Mike called. I winced because his mouth was awfully close to my ear and with my super hearing, he really didn't need to shout anyway. I saw the boat and looked around for any onlookers before landing gently on the dock where it was tied. Fang landed next to me and we both deposited our loads gratefully.

"Sorry if I was too heavy," Mike said, sheepishly. I shook my head, finding that waving him off and shrugging him off were both a little too painful. I really was out of shape. Hopefully I would be able to make it home. There it was again. Home.

"You know, if you guys are too tired to fly, you can ride in my boat and just point the right way," Mike offered.

"Not a bad idea. I didn't think of that," I replied, when I got my breath back.

"Seems like you're not thinking of a LOT of good ideas," Fang flock-whispered. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah."

"You don't have a new expiration date, do you?" he asked. The tattoo from my original expiration date had stayed, marking that day forever into my skin. No new dates though.

"No. I've just been so busy lately. I haven't had time to think."

"Maybe Mike can think for you for a while," Fang said. I gave him a look saying 'no way' and he quieted.


	11. Chapter 11

"Max! Max! Max!" Nudge squealed as she landed, nearly knocking me over when she went straight from her running landing to hugging me.

"Hush. You wanna get us caught?" I hissed. Nudge gave me the equivalent of a dog laying back its ears when its master scolded it.

"Sorry," she whispered. "I just can't believe Mike's here. And we found CHOCOLATE." I smiled and mused her hair, returning the hug.

"You haven't had any yet, have you?" I asked. She grinned sheepishly and I saw the brown smears on her brown mouth. I shook my head and braced myself when Angel landed on my back. Was I just the flock landing pad or something?

"Whoa kiddo," I gasped, and Angel giggled as she settled onto my back in a piggy back position.

"Max, it was so goooood," Nudge said, groaning in appreciation and licking her lips, "I kinda forgot to get anything else." More sheepishness.

"Nudge," I complained.

"It was quite the quality," Total said knowingly. "We simply could not help ourselves. Some of it was even SWISS." Mike looked pale, but it seemed he was handling our wings and talking dog well, if you went by the amused expression on his face. Oooh, I was going to get him. The last thing I needed was another immature boy making my life harder.

_Don't blame us, Max._ Angel mind-whispered. _We haven't had chocolate in FOREVER and you didn't give us very much to get in the first place._

_You guys should know better than that. We've been training for two months, and learning stuff we already knew._

_I know. But we were close enough to Mike's house that I could hear your guys thoughts. I knew we could put more on the boat._ I growled out loud, and listened to Nudge babble on, watching the way her eyes darted to Mike who was preparing the boat. Really, he should have prepared BEFORE we met so we could leave immediately, if he knew we were coming. If we didn't already have a TON of extra time on our hands, I would be mad.

Iggy and the Gasman arrived, completing our flock and nearly bowling me over yet again. Maybe I was just standing in a bad spot. Hmm. Too late to move now. Everyone was here.

"Did you guys get everything?" I asked.

"Yeah. Nothing extra though," Iggy replied. I didn't like the excited gleam in the eyes that probably meant they had found extra, but it was an explosive type of extra. I would get them about that later.

"Okay, everyone unload what you got on the boat. We're going out again to get what the girls and Total forgot and anything else we might need."

"Hey!" Total yelped.

"Sorry, stud, but if you don't get what we NEED for the sake of chocolate, I'm gonna point you out." Total pouted and Mike showed everyone where to dump their stuff. I supervised the unloading and watched our backs for any bad guys. Fang watched what I couldn't. The only thing that poured out of Nudge and Angel's backpacks was chocolate bars of every kind. Three hundred pounds of chocolate. Where had they even GOTTEN them all? I warned them all not to steal from stores and you only found quantity like this there. However the candy bars were found, the kids would be SO hyper for a while.

After all our backpacks were empty, I left Total with Mike (so sue me. I still didn't trust him) and sent everyone out to get more food and supplies, once again, the items on our lists being the priority. We did this twice, going out for stuff and bringing it back to the boat and with fifteen minutes to spare before sunrise. 2700 pounds of food and supplies, give or take. It seemed almost too much, but we had twelve mouths to feed now, twelve bodies to wash, twelve wardrobes to clean, and another hut to build. I was glad Mike's boat could hold most of it. With all of us, and all the supplies on the boat, we were about four hundred pounds over the weight the boat could carry, so Fang and I volunteered to fly, carrying a hundred pounds each. The less the boat had to carry, the faster it would go.


	12. Chapter 12

"I wonder what the limit is on that weightless thing when you warp," Fang said. I glanced down at the motor boat speeding along below us. Nudge was the only one that could figure out how to drive it beside Mike and you know how hard my trust is to earn. Nudge just had to touch the different parts of the boat and know how Mike had used them before, then copy his actions. Of course, she seemed to be enamored with him, so Nudge as security for the boat, the flock, and our supplies was kind of useless, but not that useless. I trusted HER to put the flock first, even with Mike flirting right back with her.

"Well we could try, but I've never gone that far. Iggy or someone would have to start flying with a backpack in my place if I got too tired to fly regularly," I replied, musing.

"Then we'll try when we get home," Fang said. "I don't want to have you feeling weak and useless on a boat with someone you don't trust."

"I... trust him," I argued.

"No you don't. I can tell."

"I do!"

"Max," Fang said,dragging out my name.

"Oh all right. It just seems so strange that he has family and money, but still lives on the streets. The flock wants nothing more than to settle down, especially now that we have some sort of family and he's throwing it all away."

"What do you want, Max?" Fang asked.

"Me?" He nodded and I watched the boat beneath us, angling slightly to stay on course. What DID I want?

"I want to keep the flock safe, and to finish this mission," I stated eventually.

"You have to keep moving for those. Just like Mike keeps moving. He has his reasons and so do you, Max. He's a good guy and you know that or else you wouldn't let Nudge get her hopes up about him and flirt with him like that." I glanced at Fang. He was smiling, that small, warm, knowing smile that meant he understood everything about me and saw me starting to understand.

"How do you know that I'm not just using reverse psychology on Nudge so that she stops liking him when she realizes she can have him?" I replied. Fang laughed and tapped my wingtip with his.

"Come on, Max. You don't have the patience for that kinda thing." I growled at him, trying to repress a grin.

"Oh all right. You're right. Happy?"

"Yep." I rolled my eyes and glanced around.

"Fang? What's that?" I asked, pointing. He turned his head, following through with his wings and body so we were circling our boat. Way in the distance, we saw the glint of the rising sun against a boat. The no lights were on, something stupid in the dim light of early morning, unless you were tailing someone. And the boat was headed straight towards us.


	13. Chapter 13

Fang cursed and we dove towards our boat to warn the flock. How had the bad guys even found us?

"Guys, we got a follower," I said. "Change course and lead them away from the island, only make it a slow change so they don't realize we've seen them." The flock jumped into action and Nudge became serious.

"We're gonna wait until we're on a different heading before we attack, got it? I don't want to give away the island's position. And STAY CALM. They probably have binoculars to watch us. If you act like you know they're there, they're gonna know you know.

"That's a twisted sentence if I ever heard one," Mike teased. And the flock laughed. I smiled.

"Good job. Keep it up. Now give me some chocolate bars to explain why I landed on the boat." Angel and Gazzy grabbed several from the pile and handed them to me. I hugged them both, thanked them and took off, joining Fang in the sky.

"You're thinking again," Fang said as I tossed him a candy bar in the sky.

"Danger's always a good brain food," I replied. He chuckled and munched on the chocolate. We circled again, making it look just like all the other circles we had done during our flight and noted the boat's position. It was taking the bait, adjusting to match our slightly new heading. Our boat was very, very slowly turning so to a ninety degree angle from the way home, without being abrupt.

All of us were on edge, watching the boat out of the corners of our eyes and playing the part of a happy flock, coming home from pillaging Greece. It had been much easier before the mystery boat appeared. We went for miles on the new course, until we were far, far out to sea, at least a couple hundred miles from any land and definitely more than that from our island. When I was sure that even if someone sent out a search party, they would never come close to our island, I took out a trusty hand mirror and signaled to the flock using the bit of light coming from the boat's lanterns.

Nudge slowed the boat to a standstill and let Mike take the wheel. I swerved low, flock-whispering instructions even as I was thinking up a plan. Gazzy and Iggy became a flurry of activity and Nudge's face scrunched up in concentration. Mike was busy checking the boat's systems and flicking switches. The battle was about to begin.


	14. Chapter 14

"Everyone ready?" I asked. They all said yes, making sure not to nod. I glanced at Fang and he raised an eyebrow seeming to say, 'well, come on already'.

"GO!" Angel dived into the water, deeper than I could see her while Gazzy, Total and Iggy joined me and Fang in the air. We dropped our backpacks onto the boat and soared towards the other one while Nudge worked hard with her magnetism to bring the boat towards ours, making the drivers of the other boat lose all control. Mike revved our boat to high speed, doing tricky twists and maneuvers, while holding Nudge around her waist so she wouldn't fall while pulling the enemy boat after them. I should have known he'd make a move on her.

The five of us in the air dive bombed the other boat and landed, just as there was a whining screeching noise of twisting metal. Angel came out from underwater only a moment later, beaming at me. She had broken their propeller.

There were three men on deck and maybe more below. Definitely more if they had planned to attack us. With six on three, they quickly succumbed and I had Fang and Total and Angel stay on deck to watch these bad guys while Iggy and I went below. Fang was already signaling with the mirror that we had control of the boat.

There was no one else. Besides a few hammocks, some gas and food, and a bunch of scientific stuff, there was nothing. The boat was some kind of fancy yacht. What didn't surprise me at all was the School's symbol plastered all over everything. Didn't we defeat those guys ages ago?

"No one else!" I called up. Iggy and I searched the boat for any clues as to what these guys were doing and found none. Just the School's logo everywhere and a bunch of tracking devices. Huh. Well, time to go interrogate the captives.

"Hey guys," I said when I got back above. I recognized one of them. Didn't know his name though. "What's up? I haven't seen one of you in a LONG time." Rather than scared, the whitecoats looked angry. Well, that was different.

"Why no long faces?" I asked.

"And why were you following us?" Gazzy added. I glared at him, careful to hide the look from the whitecoats.

"We weren't following you," the one I recognized said. "We were following the normal one. Mike whatsit or other." Another big difference. I wasn't used to the bad guys chasing someone else.

"Why?"

"I won't tell you. Classified," he replied.

"Ah. So you're not going to tell the previously top-secret experiments that happen to have several bombs another piece of classified information," I stated. He looked skeptical.

"It has nothing to do with you. And where would you get a bomb? It's not like they sell kids that kinda stuff."

"We don't need to buy one. My boys know how to make them." Iggy and the Gasman beamed at the whitecoats and I felt a little motherly pride when the whitecoats paled. "Now tell me why you're following Mike." The whitecoat doing all the speaking was suddenly quiet. So were his comrades until Iggy pulled out a bomb. Wait, was the fuse a sock? Oh well. Hopefully that wasn't the one they were planning on using. We needed precision for this.

"Look, either you tell us what we're asking and I let you go on a lifeboat BEFORE we blow up your boat or you don't tell us and we blow up the boat with you still on it." Whoa. When did I get to be so violent? Gazzy pulled out a different bomb with a very large digital face on it, the numbers reading ten minutes. He pushed a number and it started counting down.

"Less than ten minutes guys," I added. "The longer you take to tell us, the less time you have to get the lifeboat ready." After about eight minutes according to the timer on the bomb, one of the other whitecoats broke.

"All right. All right," he gasped. "Mike stole a computer from our company."

"Well, that's no biggie. We stole one too and you guys never chased us down for that. Just everything else about us," I replied, confused.

"Dr. Jones," the leader warned.

"It had all our information on it. About all the experiments and upcoming ones," Jones continued.

"Dr. Jones! Be QUIET!" I winced as the leader roared.

"No! I like my life Dr. Blake. I'd like to keep it and get the hell of this boat." Their conversation quickly degraded into a petty argument.

"Boys, boys!" I yelled over the noise. "Is that all?" Dr. Jones nodded and I stepped back.

"Let 'em go Fang. Everyone, up and away. Whitecoats, Greece is that way." I pointed away from our island in almost the opposite direction. It would lead them to Greece, but an entirely different island. Gazzy had been supergluing the bomb to the boat, so they couldn't throw it in the sea when we left. The whitecoats had a minute and a half. The timed bomb, wasn't actually a bomb. That had been the plan from the very beginning. It was just enough to get the whitecoats off the boat and moving away from our island. See? We were humane unlike SOME insane whitecoat doctors I know.

My flock took off, leaving the whitecoats to their own devices. After they left on the lifeboat, Iggy and Gazzy would put a real bomb on the boat so any GPS or tracking devices wouldn't be able to function properly anymore. Hopefully they weren't on a live feed to a headquarters somewhere. Knowing the School though, they probably were. Won't the doctors at HQ be surprised when their little bleep disappears?

I jumped up and flapped downward at the highest point of my jump, putting me over fifty feet in the air right away. At fifty one something crashed into my side. Oof. Then the cry, "Flyboys!" Oh boy. I hadn't seen that one coming.

"Attack!" I yelled back and swung a mid-flight roundhouse kick at the flyboy that had rammed into me. He went down like a ton of bricks straight into the water where he fizzed out. They really shouldn't send robots to fight us over an ocean.

"Max!" Fang yelled, and I rolled in the air to avoid another flyboy sized missile. Gotta start paying attention, Max. Three converged on me at once and I fought them off, a punch in the head here, a kick to the gut there. You know. Some ole, some ole. With all the training, it only took one or two blows each to knock them out of the sky. Three cheers for physical training.

When I finally got a break between flyboys, I looked around to assess the battle. There were still nearly three hundred flyboys. More than usual, that was for sure I couldn't see Fang through the crowd he was fighting, which was a little worrying, but underneath, there was a steady stream of falling flyboys. That was reassuring. Nudge was using her magnetism to draw two or more robots to here from opposite directions and darting out of the way at the last minute. That took out a LOT. I was proud of her for having the idea and having the control to follow through.

Angel and Gazzy were like a semi-blonde tag team of death. It was amazing to watch brother and sister work together. It was also kind of creepy to see Angel smiling sweetly at groups of flyboys and watching them wrap up their wings with sickening smiles of trust just before falling to their doom on the ocean bottom. It makes me shiver just thinking about it. That girl was scary powerful. Total was being... Total. We had been training him, but there wasn't much a teeny dog could do to robotic people. They didn't really feel pain. You just had to jar them enough to knock them out of the sky and he was too small to really do that. Mike was down on our boat, doing his best to keep the flyboys from landing on it when we knocked them out. Then ten or more flyboys came at me and I had to concentrate on fighting again.

The battle seemed to go on forever and hardly any time at all. It was that strange place we got sometimes. 'In the zone' or whatever. Each moment passed by faster than you could understand, yet they seemed to last an eternity. After a while, when everyone was starting to get exhausted and there was still over two hundred, Nudge finally go the idea to dive underwater, and draw all the flyboys to her. It was like raining flyboys and everyone had to work hard to make sure they didn't get hit by a magnetized robot, especially Nudge. After that, the battle was over and there was probably a mini-mountain of robotic erasers at the bottom of the sea. Man, I was exhausted. Unfortunately, that was just about when Mike's boat ran out of gas.


	15. Chapter 15

You can imagine the stream of swear words that poured out of my mouth when Mike refused to use his extra gas and Fang told me that we'd get to see the weight limit on my warp after all. insert a long-winded super-loud scream of anger, frustration, and exhaustion here Were they kidding? But what could I do? We were hundreds of miles away from our island and all of our supplies were on the boat. I wasn't about to make the flock (and myself) make several trips back and forth to carry them all there. So I just gave them a tired groan after my cursing spree and lifted off, letting Fang land on the boat. It was slightly over the boat's weight limit, but I would be the one pulling us, maybe even in the air, so who cared, right? While I was in the air, Fang took a rope and made it into a harness around my torso. Pack mule style.

Then the flock secured by dumping it below deck, with tarp wrapped around the fragiles. Then they tied themselves to the boat and gripped the sides. Mike looked both skeptical and nervous, but he must've known SOMETHING about my weightless warp thing or else he wouldn't have refused to use the gas to get to the island.

"Ready?" I called. I got affirmatives from everybody before I switched to warp. Did the boat, flock, and supplies weight too much? Nope. So far, no limit. Yay. Not really, but it was helpful. Maybe next time I could bring the flock and both the boats, then fill them up and bring them both back. Warp didn't tire me out anymore than regular flying, so it would be just like flying to Greece and back. Easy peasy. That is, if there was a next time. Mass amounts of flyboys and three whitecoats chasing our latest addition to the island made me nervous. I would have to ask Mike about that computer when we got home. YAWN. Or maybe after I woke up.

We arrived at the island without incident. Jeb, Mom, Ella, and even Akila were waiting for us and they welcomed us home with open arms and cries of relief. We had survived the great supplies mission. Then the only job was carrying all the stuff to the communal hut and leaving it for the nonflock to unpack. The flying people (especially me) were exhausted. Just before heading to my hut, I made sure Iggy and Gazzy removed all the gas in the boats and hid them. I also pulled Jeb away from everybody to talk.

"Max, who's that boy?" he asked.

"Mike. He's gonna help us out. Remember? I told you how he helped us with passports and ids. Make sure he doesn't leave your sight. We were followed. The flock and I attacked and interrogated the three whitecoats aboard-"

"Did you get names?"

"Um.. Dr. Jones and Dr. Blake. Why? You know 'em?"

"I know Dr. Blake," Jeb said, looking angrily into the distance. "Please continue. You interrogated and?"

"And... they told us that Mike stole a computer from them with all the School's files on it. I haven't had a chance to ask him about it, but make sure you get it from him. I don't completely trust him yet, okay?"

"I gotcha. Now go get some sleep, Max. You're looking a little worse for wear. All of you are. What else happened?"

"Well, after we let the doctors go, we were attacked by a bunch of flyboys. Over three hundred. In the end, Nudge had to drag them all under water," I explained.

"Wow. You guys really need some sleep. Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on him and the island. Don't worry about guard duty tonight either," Jeb said.

"Crap! I forgot about that. Sorry Jeb, but I only trust the flock to watch the whole island well. Make sure the others get some sleep." Then I took off despite Jeb's many protests. Guess who followed me into the air. If you guessed a certain handsome, dressed all in block male named Fang, you would be right.

"What are you doing, Max?" he asked as I started my first circle around the island.

"Guard duty. What else?"

"Max," he groaned. "You need sleep. Just like the rest of us."

"Yeah, but I have better endurance and we need a guard, now more than ever since what happened out at sea," I replied.

"Please, Max. Just trust Jeb, okay? We'll be fine. But I'm worried about you. My power exhausts me, I'm afraid yours does the same and you just dragged over 3000 pounds of weight over hundreds of miles at warp speed. Rest, okay?" I glanced at Fang and took in his weary, worried face. I could see better now that the sun was more than an hour up. He really was scared that warp tired me out more.

"Warp is no more exhausting than normal flight," I assured. "I'm fine." He gave me another look as if he was going to keep arguing.

"I'm fine, but for your sake, I'll get some sleep," I continued. He smiled and we angled back towards the huts.

"You'll sleep in MY hut so you can't get up after I'm asleep," he added.

"You just want me alone in a room with a bed," I teased. He smiled and shook his head.

"I'm too tired for any kissing tonight," Fang said. I laughed and we landed just outside his hut. Fang made sure I went in first and that I was on the inside of the bed, closest to the wall. Darnit. Fang just knew me too well. We spooned facing the door, my arm thrown over Fang's waist and I buried my head into his back, secretly taking in big whiffs of Fang's own special scent. Today, laying together was more comforting and familiar than romantic. After a few minutes and more than a few yawns, we both fell asleep, smiling.


	16. Chapter 16

"MAX!!!" I jerked awake from a great dream including me, Fang, and no mission to save the world. I HATED my name. I would've changed it AGES ago and never told anyone what my new name was if it weren't for the way 'Max' sounded when Fang said it. Speaking of Fang... he was spooning me instead of the other way around, both of us facing the wall. One arm was across my waist and the other cushioning my head. I wiggled so my body was cradled against the line of his body and closed my eyes.

"MAX!!!" Grrr. Fang shifted and I jumped a little when he whispered in my ear.

"Sounds like they need you for something," he said.

"You're awake?"

"Mm hmm. They woke me up a few minutes before they woke you."

"MAX!!!" The yells were starting to sound more panicked. I realized they must've freaked when I wasn't the first one they saw in the morning, waking them up, and again when I wasn't in my hut. There was some mumbling and something about Fang a few seconds before Ella appeared at the opening to Fang's hut.

"They're in here!" she called. "Did you guys SLEEP together?" She giggled and I groaned. Perky humans were SO not the first thing I wanted to hear in the morning.

"Yes. Now get," I grumbled. Fang chuckled in my ear, sending goosebumps down my neck and arms.

"All ri-ight," she teased and left, telling the others where we were.

"We're gonna pay for that later," Fang whispered.

"Don't I know it. Come on. We've got training to do. And probably still some unpacking if Ella's well-rested cheeriness is anything to go by. They probably only put the cold stuff in the container in the stream." Fang laughed softly again and kissed my neck, then my shoulder and tightened his arms around me. I clasped hands with him, lacing our fingers together.

"Islands are supposed to be relaxing."

"Not when we're on them," I replied. Another soft laugh and Fang let me go, turning over and sitting up on the edge of the bed. He rubbed his hands over his face and eyes before shaking his head and running his hands through his hair and standing up. I recognized the gestures from all those times when the whole flock had to sleep in one place. It was Fang's way of telling his body to wake up. Then he turned at looked at me, quirking his lips.

"Good morning," he said, before bending over and kissing me on the mouth. I kissed right back, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him closer so Fang had no choice but to climb back on the bed on top of me or risk falling on me which would be painful to both of us. Guess which one he chose. And guess who came inside the hut right when he settled on top of me, between my legs so that my knees, which were bent up, wouldn't poke him in the stomach. That's right. The whole freakin' island. Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Total, Akila, Jeb, Mom, and Mike and Ella was the one leading them all. I was SO gonna kill her.


	17. Chapter 17

I groaned with frustration and blushed with embarrassment, hiding both by burying my head into Fang's shoulder. Could they POSSIBLY have come at a worse time? I heard a few gasps, several giggles, and one full out laugh. That one was Iggy.  
"Oh my god," he gasped around bursts of laughter, "You guys didn't-"  
"No!" I snapped. "Now everyone get OUT!!"  
"Max," Mom said, trailing off. This was not what a mother should see her daughter doing first thing in the morning. It didn't help matters that Fang hadn't moved off of me yet, instead, he had settled more comfortably on me, laying down instead of propping himself up on his arms.  
"Get offa me, Fang," I growled. "And everyone get out. We'll be there in a minute. Iggy, is breakfast ready?" He was past speechless with laughing and managed a nod.  
"Go eat," I commanded. The girls and Total were giggling as they left while Jeb looked murderous, Mom wandered off in a daze, Mike amused, and Gazzy looked disgusted. Iggy as you probably well know, was still laughing his head off. Akila was clueless. Fang propped himself up again, meeting my eyes with twinkling amusement.  
"We'll DEFINTELY pay for that later," he said, smiling. I couldn't help it. I smiled back and Fang kissed me again, a light, chaste kiss, only lips touching.  
"I'd kill you if you weren't so darn cute," I stated. He laughed and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY rolled off me, setting his feet on the floor and standing up all in one smooth movement. Practice makes perfect. Looking at the smug smile on Fang's face, I realized I probably shouldn't have said that.  
"Come on. Let's go eat and deal with the ridicule," Fang replied, reaching out a hand. I took it, let him pull me to my feet and we walked to the communal hut hand in hand. When we entered, I dared them to make a comment with my eyes. Let anyone who had a death wish or a serious-pain wish try and say something.  
Later, Mom and Jeb cornered me and Fang in Jeb's hut for a lecture. Oh joy.  
"What were you two thinking?" Jeb asked, furious and pacing. I guess that's where I got it from. Mom had always seemed to nice and easy-going to really be MY mom, but she was. Maybe it was because she hadn't raised me. Jeb had.  
"I was exhausted and Fang convinced me to go to sleep instead of doing guard duty, but he wanted me to sleep in his hut so I couldn't get up after everyone was asleep and watch the island anyway," I replied. Really the logic made complete sense.  
"But you're just KIDS!" Jeb yelled. "Sleeping in the same bed can... LEAD to things." He seemed kind of uncomfortable. Oh well. I wasn't going to help him.  
"It's never been a problem before," I retorted. Fang was silent, standing behind and to the side of me, kind of like a bodyguard might.  
"That's because it's never been just the two of you."  
"It's been just the two of us TONS of times, Jeb. You were just too busy being the School's perfect whitecoat to be around for that!" I shouted. Jeb winced and I felt a pang of victory. Aha. I had struck a nerve. This was when Mom took over. How weird. I had always read about and seen on TV how two parents would tag team against their kids to keep the fight going and make sure they won. Now it was really happening. Huh.  
"Max. Jeb is right. You and Fang are together now. Sleeping alone together isn't... correct," she said. Then Mom smiled and added, "What would the neighbors think?" I smiled despite myself. Maybe things were calming down.  
"Nothing happened anyway. What you saw was pretty much the whole show. We were too tired," I replied. Oops. Wrong move. Jeb's face darkened to a frightening cross between tomato red and dark dark violet.  
"So you WOULD have done something if you'd been well-rested?" he fumed.  
"No," I stated. "Not any more than what you saw." This seemed to throw him off.  
"Really?"  
"Really really." I love movie references in movies. In case you haven't figure it out yet, Donkey says it in Shrek. Jeb sighed and rubbed his face wearily, falling into the chair we had labored over just as long as his desk. I winced when wood creaked. I SO did not want to build another one.  
"Can we get back to training now? I don't like leaving the flock to their own devices for long, especially right after we went on a supplies mission. Who knows what Iggy and Gazzy could find to blow up?" Jeb sighed and waved his hand dismissively. I didn't like it, but I was glad to get out of there.  
"Wait, Fang do you have anything to say about this?" Jeb asked just as we neared the opening.  
"Nope." Jeb studied him and waved again.  
"Go on. Make sure they haven't used all the gas for the boats for something." I sighed in relief and left the hut, making sure to keep at least a couple of inches between me and Fang until we were out of sight.


	18. Chapter 18

Then I grabbed his head and yanked his mouth against mine. Call it teenage rebellion. Fang looked surprised when I pulled away, a glare on my face, and took off, headed towards the training grounds where I had left the flock, Mike, and Ella. He followed, shaking his head and smiling. I missed the good ole days when the flock and I could do whatever we pleased, traveling where we wanted, sleeping however we wanted, and weren't controlled by adults. After this whole training thing on the island and saving the world thing, Mom would probably want us back on the CSM front, passing out flyers, doing shows, and giving grand speeches about the state of the planet. UGH!!!

"Back to work," I commanded when I landed. They immediately straightened up, returning to their positions. When I had landed all of them were in a huge circle of giggling gossip. Grr. Jeb had gotten the computer from Mike and he was working on it right now, going through everything. That was how he had managed to get me and Fang alone in his hut. The manipulative little... Ugh! So Mike had joined us in training.

I led the flock through a series of kicks and punches, making sure they had the pattern down before I went around correcting their stances and making sure to spend extra time with the two untrained humans. We were working on the untrained part though. They were doing pretty good even though Jeb hadn't trained them for two years first. Hey! Maybe I was a good teacher. Naw. Speaking of teaching.

"Max?" Nudge asked, still kicking and punching the air.

"Hmm?" I reached out and straightened Ella's leg then gently kicked Mike's feet slightly further apart to better his balance and stance, before looking at Nudge.

"Do you think we could take a break out of training every now and then so Mom and Jeb can teach us school stuff?"

"Why would you wanna do that?"

"Well... If we ever go to a school again, I don't wanna be behind," she tried. I stopped studying my flock for mistakes to fix and fixed my gaze on her again. She looked so earnest and puppy-dog-eye-y which is really hard to do when you're practicing black belt martial arts moves.

"You really want to?" I prodded. She nodded vigorously and I sighed.

"If you can convince Mom and Jeb, I don't mind. It'd give me a break every once in a while." She beamed and her kicks, which kept falling short of the perfect precision we used to have started to get better. I smiled and moved around the flock, fixing little things so they looked like the future flock had when I talked to them. Perfect unison, every movement precise and smooth. THERE'S my little army of attitudinal birdkids. Mike and Ella were still having trouble, but like I said earlier, they didn't have any training before this to help. For my kids, it was just remembering old stuff, and applying it to anything new that I passed on from my lessons with Jeb.

"How would you get a break?" Gazzy asked. "Wouldn't you be learning school stuff with us?"

"We have at least four different grade levels and only two teachers. While two groups are learning, the rest of us would have free time."

"Oh." I smiled and ruffled Gazzy's hair, feeling extra proud when he still managed a perfectly balanced kick while I wiggled his head. It was kind of amusing to watch Total attempt karate, but after the first few times he had settled for running laps around us or laying with Akila nearby, watching. He was laying in the shade with her, panting after the exertion of his last couple laps. Mike had given up and sat down next to Akila, with Total on his lap, stroking them both. After a few more repeats of the sequence, I called a timeout and let everyone chill out. The girls, minus Ella went to sit with Mike and the dogs. Iggy and Gazzy collapsed where they stood. Heat never seemed to bug Gazzy anymore since his new power with flame, but that didn't mean he didn't get tired from hours of practice. Fang strolled towards a different tree and sat down, his knees raised slightly for balance and comfort. Ella was the only one that kept going.

"Ella? What are you doing?"

"I pant wanna get this," she gasped, kicking and punching the air ever more feverishly. I was worried about her. It was hotter than usual today and she hadn't taken one water break.

"You'll get it. Take a break or you're gonna wear yourself out," I said, touching her shoulder. She stopped and looked at me before nodding.

"Oh, all right."

"Good. How about we just call it a day? It's too hot and if more flyboys come we won't be able to fight them." Everyone nodded in relief and I took off into the air, circling low.

"Last one to the water gets to make more fighting dummys!" I called laughing. They looked surprised, but as I headed towards the ocean, they all jumped up, either running or taking into the skies, all with laughing, smiling faces.

It was then the flyboys came. It was like a nightmare, one of my worst dreams. There were HUNDREDS of them, more than we fought coming back to the island. No matter how hard we fought and how many Nudge pulled into the ocean or Angel thought into the ocean, there were still more. Iggy and Gazzy gave them every bomb they had and still more came. Fang and I killed an innumerable amount and still they came. We didn't have a chance.


	19. Chapter 19

Imagine that one time, when you were young, you were locked into a teeny tiny place and then say... someone kept poking you with sharp sticks. Then you're let our or escape and you spend YEARS experiencing big open places where you're never poked by sticks and you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. Then while you're sleeping, someone puts you back in that teeny place and wakes you up by poking you with sticks. Now if you really thought hard to imagine that, then you'll know how I felt when I woke up with a killer headache, in teeny freakin' dog kennel. It wasn't good, I'll tell you that.

"Fang?" I called, working hard to keep my breathing even. I trusted him to be able to deal with me panicking. The others, not so much.

"I'm here, Max. Calm down. It's just a kennel," he cooed. I looked around and saw him in the kennel next to me. He reached his arm through the bars and I did too so we could just barely touch fingertips. It was enough.

"Where are the others?"

"They're in a line down my other side," he replied. "I think we're ordered by age because Iggy's next to me and he says Nudge is next to him."

"What about Jeb, Mom, Mike, Ella, and Akila?"

"I don't know. They're not in here." I groaned, the aches and pains from fighting and laying in a cramped kennel making themselves known.

"Are you all right?" Fang asked.

"Fine, fine. Just starting to feel everything." I looked over and saw him give me a small reassuring smile. Footsteps started down the hall and we all fell quiet. I started speaking flock whisper.

"Whoever's cage gets opened. Be ready to kick some butt, okay? Make sure you knock them out then get us out. If you can't because of alarms or more whitecoats or security, just go and wait for us somewhere close. The rest of us will try and follow." I heard affirmative whispers and my flock shifting onto the balls of their feet, balancing the best they could in such a small space. Unfortunately, while the whitecoat stopped in front of my kennel, he didn't open it. Just bent down and peered in. They must be learning finally. Darnit!

"Maximum Ride, I've been waiting AGES to get a hold of you and your fellow experiments. Those fools in the California branch had no idea what they were dealing with," he said, almost purring with pleasure. Sick.

"I thought we defeated the School 'AGES' ago," I said, making sure he heard the quotation around 'ages'. We weren't THAT old.

"We are not the School and you will never imply we are or you WILL lose a family member." I stifled a gasp. No. I didn't want them dead. Not even Jeb or Mike. I must have shown something on my face though because the whitecoat, smiled.

"Ah. See, you don't want that. Here are the rules for staying at our establishment. If you attack anyone unless told to, you will lose a family member. If you disobey, you will lose a family member. If you try to escape-"

"I will lose a family member. I get it. But if you're not the school, then how do you have flyboys to capture with?" The whitecoat looked confused.

I sighed and reworded, "The robots with Eraser skin covering."

"Oh. What wonderful nicknames you've given them. I assume the 'Erasers' are the lupine, human mixes? Wonderful, wonderful. Well, our company bought all experiments from the School, including you and the other avian human mixes. So now, we legally own you."

"Don't you know slavery is illegal?"

"As is much of the experimentation we do here. So now, if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to. I'll be sending in Dr. Blake and Dr. Jones to take you to the systems diagnostics room." Well that was nice. Normally they would just send in a whitecoat and force us to a room without giving us warning. Hey! I knew those names too! They were the doctors on the boat that we had fake-bombed. I guess the new company hadn't just bought the experiments, but the workers as well.

"That's a nice change of pace. Aren't they the doctors on the boat?" Fang said. There he goes again, reading my mind without having the power to do so. I nodded and settled in the kennel, my back against the back wall and my legs out in front of me, knees raised so my legs would fit. I crossed my arms on top of my knees and rested my head in the pillow they made. If only I knew where the nonflock family members were. Then I could escape, free the flock and go get the humans without too much worry that they would die. I just hoped they were safe.


	20. Chapter 20

_This is what the whitecoats were busy with._ Voice!

_Why didn't you tell me the School was selling everything off? Death was better than being stuck in a freakin' dog kennel._

_Oh Max. Just think about this whenever you're afraid, okay? I'm the future flock. The world is saved, I'm alive, and I'm happy._

_If that's true, then why are you talking to me? Wouldn't it just be? You know, like preordained or whatever?_

_I'm making sure you get the guidance that helped you get to our period of time as you did._

_Okay stop. I'm getting confused by the whole time difference thing. It was much easier when you were just ONE person that I didn't know and was in this time period._ The Voice chuckled.

_You'll be fine Max. Just listen to me, okay?_

_Fine._ The Voice pulled away and I was left with my thoughts again. Not much better, I'll tell you that much. Dr. Blake and Dr. Jones came a little while later and took us, one by one down to the systems diagnostics room which turned out to be where they gave us a doctor's physical to check our health and condition. It was all marked down neatly and precisely in little notebooks and typed into their computers right on scene. Then they would lead us back and get the next flock member. They were being very very careful, even more so than the School had been. THEY at least, were learning from the School's mistakes.

We were captured, with no safe way of escaping with everyone in tow. It was worse than I remembered. Several times they brought the nonflock family to see us, showing the bruises and marks that represented each time one of us got smart with a whitecoat or hesitated when told to do something. Then they would be forced back to wherever they were being held, with blindfolds on so while Angel could read their minds, they wouldn't be able to think about which way they went for Angel to read. The days seemed endless, the experimentation brutal, and the whole thing disheartening (biggest understatement ever). I lost count of how long we'd been there, but Angel, going from the whitecoats' minds, said it had been weeks. Fang and I were always careful to hide the fact that our relationship was more than the ones with the others, so the whitecoats wouldn't have even more leverage to use against us. All in all, it SUCKED and I couldn't even say that it did without someone getting hurt.


	21. Chapter 21

"Increase speed by one notch." I inwardly groaned and adjusted to the new speed on the treadmill. We'd already been going three hours, steadily increasing the speed by one mile every fifteen minutes, starting at five miles in the beginning. Once again, the whitecoats at the new organization were testing my stamina and endurance. The really weird thing about this place was that no one ever said or thought (according to Angel) what the name of the organization was. There were no logos anywhere, rather than the School's logo which had been plastered all over the School, and even more strangely in the new organization's boat. It didn't make sense.

"Again," Dr. Jones said. Although he did most of the tests on us, he was nicer than Dr. Blake. For example, instead of electrocuting me every time I stopped, he just pulled me to my feet by my hair. I couldn't figure out which one hurt less, but pulling my hair seemed more humane than zapping me with an electrocution stick.

"You're doing well, Max," he said. "Much better than the others." I kept quiet though there were a million things I wanted to say: 'Maybe that's because I'm the oldest?' or 'Then why don't you let me have a break as a reward for doing so well?' or even better, 'Great. Now you try'. I HAD said all of those things at one point or another and received an extra hair pull or shock. That would be perfectly fine, except that when they brought the nonflock to see us, they had pointed out specific bruises and cuts, telling me that they were for my mouthing off.

"Another notch, please." Already, eight weeks of testing and they were still doing the same tests. It was like the first time wasn't enough. They needed to PROVE that what they had already proven was true or something. Maybe it was because I ran for longer each time they did this. Well, duh! Of course I would run longer. It's like when you normal people go jogging. Each time you can jog a little faster or a little farther. It wasn't rocket science.

This time I tanked at five hours, six minutes, and thirty-two seconds. Or at least, that's what they told me when I woke up. Another weird thing about this organization as opposed to the School was that they told us the results of our tests. They told us where they were taking us, what they were going to do and why and then what the implications were for our results. It was almost like we were their fellow whitecoats, there to collaborate with and discuss the experiments with. However we were also the experiments, so relationships weren't all that great, though we did participate in their discussions, asking questions and giving suggestions for why this might be happening. It was almost like we were working together on the same project until they tortured us with a test or brought our human family by for a visit.

I woke up from the last running test (05:06:32) to one of these conversations. When the whitecoats realized I was up, they told me my time and included me in the talk. Eventually they left and I settled as comfortably as I could in the kennel, still sore from all the running. Maybe they would leave me alone long enough for me to get in another nap. It was nearly midnight after all (according to what Angel said the whitecoats were thinking) and experimentation usually slowed down the later it got.

"Max, are you okay?" Fang asked, after they left.

"Yeah. Just tired."

"Me too."

"I wish we could get Mom and Jeb and Mike and Ella and escape," Nudge sighed.

"I know sweetheart. Me too," I replied. "But we don't know where they're being held. If we did, I would tear this kennel to pieces right now, set all of you free and go get the others." The whitecoats had rearranged our kennels from the straight line to a sort of semi circle, so I was able to see Nudge's sad smile. Angel had been sullen and quiet, only talking to inform us of time passing. She felt... frustrated I guess, that she couldn't get the location of the others from the whitecoats or the organization's name or anything that might have been important for our escape. 'It was just so strange,' she had said, 'It's like they only think about how to experiment on us and that's it.' My poor baby.

"What if I knew where the humans were located." I jumped and glanced out my kennel. I hadn't heard that voice in MONTHS. It was Omen.


	22. Chapter 22

**so to my readers, this is the last one you're gonna get for about a week and a couple of days because i'll be visiting my dad in SC and i don't think i can prepost on this website however, if you really really want more parts, i CAN prepost on the maximum ride website so the next few parts will be posted there if you wanna check them out and aren't patient enough for me to get back. i had to work hard to get enough parts done to last the week (and then some) so the parts are kinda short, but i think you'll be alright. my username is goingcrazy and the website is (pardon the spaces, otherwise the link won't show up) www. max - dan - wiz. com now take out the spaces and you'll have the website. then look for my username or the blog posts titled The Sequel--part # and make sure it was posted by goingcrazy, okay? happy reading :-)**

"Omen?" I hissed. "What are you doing here?" I looked around quickly. There were cameras in here. Or... not. As I looked for them, I realized every single one was smashed. He must've moved in warp speed to destroy them. Omen had tried to kill Fang multiple times with the final goal being that he "killed" me and in the end he had killed me for real, though I'd come back to life. After that, I'd sent him packing. But now, here he was, crouching OUTSIDE my kennel with what looked like a ring of keys in his hand and hinting at the whereabouts of the rest of my family.

I heard everyone sit up in their kennels and I looked around. Fang looked ANGRY, but kind of hopeful. Like it or not, Omen was the one who was gonna get us out of here. The others just looked every kind of hopeful. They wanted OUT of the kennels, OUT of this building, and AWAY from everything to do with whitecoats and running away.

"I will explain later. For now, I will release you and the flock. I will take you to the humans so that you may release them as well. We must hurry. It will not take long for the scientists to discover the cameras have stopped working." I nodded and moved so I could leap out of the kennel as soon as he had it open. The lock clicked and I was out, breathing in sweet freedom, but more wary than ever now that I had something more to be taken away. Omen quickly moved around the semi circle, unlocking the kennels. I dared Fang with my eyes to start something. He just nodded at me and waited for the rest of the flock to be free.

I hugged them all as they were released, glad that we weren't separated by kennels or whitecoats anymore. All of us showed signs of the constant testing with scars, bruises, cuts, and dark, dark circles around our eyes. The whitecoats only gave us five or six hours between each test.

"Okay guys, whatever happens we'll stick together. I don't want anyone to be caught and the others not know about. Got it?" I said. They nodded and I turned to Omen.

"Lead the way," I commanded. He nodded as well, turned, started down one of the hallways leading away from the kennel room with a somber expression on his face. I shared another glance with Fang and all of us followed Omen. Maybe his coming would be a good omen this time.


	23. Chapter 23

So far, we hadn't run into any whitecoats. I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing, like the "quiet before a storm" or "it's quiet, too quiet" feeling. Then again, it was midnight or later. Most scientists, no matter or evil genius-y or obsessed with science they were, weren't experimenting in the wee hours of the morning.

Omen walked without pause. It made me nervous that he didn't check around corners or duck when he passed a door with a window in it. The flock and I looked like paranoid freaks compared to his confident, yet brisk stride.

"Is there anyone in the building?" I flock-whispered, knowing Omen could hear it. I think he could hear better than we could even.

"There are security guards at every outside door and patrolling the hallways, three... no, four scientists on the floor above us, discussing a new experiment they plan to try on Angel, and several human/lupine recombinant DNA experiments roaming the hallways," he whispered back. I held in the panic.

"Then why aren't we being more... stealthy?"

"Because no one is near us. They are all in different parts of the building," Omen explained. I nodded and breathed a sigh of relief, glancing at Fang. He quirked his lips with reassuring, concerned eyes. He was being really well-behaved considering that Omen was back. When I had taken in Ari a while back, he had taken the guys and flown off to California, leaving me, the girls, and Ari to go save the world in Europe. He had rescued us in the end, but it was a close call. That was also when we defeated Itex, the company behind the School. I almost ran into Omen when he stopped.

"We are here," he stated. We were standing in front of a solid, metal door. From what I knew of locks, this one had a dead bolt on it.

"How do we get in?" Omen grinned cheerlessly at me and we watched in awe and maybe a little disgust as he raised his hand, and the tip of his finger changed into a lock pick. How weird. And handy. Pun not intended. Omen worked for several minutes until there was a satisfying click.

"It is unlocked," he said. I yanked open the door and peeked in, looking for any booby traps. When I saw my human family lying beaten on the ground at the other end of the room, I forgot about anything and dived towards them. That's when the alarms went off.


	24. Chapter 24

"Wake up! Wake up! It's me and the flock! We gotta go!" I yelled. Mom, Ella, Jeb, and Mike looked around groggily. My shouts weren't what had woken them up, but it sure got them moving. They leaped up, despite all the injuries and darted out of the cell ahead of me. Because that's what it was. A cell. We would save the mushy reunion for AFTER we got out of there.

"We must go," Omen, said, yelling over the noise of the alarms. I nodded, getting tired of him stating the obvious and we all followed him charging toward whatever exit he had planned for us. I didn't care as long as we all got out safe and relatively sound.

"What's happening?" Mom shouted. "How did you get out?"

"Later, Mom."

"Flyboys!" Nudge screamed. There were three ahead of us. I cursed and we all started to turn around. Nope. Another three were blocking our way there too. I saw a door and pointed. Everyone understood and we sprinted in, locking it behind us.

"Look for a window!" I commanded. We spread out and searched through what looked like a storage room for walls, hopefully walls with a window.

"Nothing here!" Iggy called. I got much the same from everybody. We would get the room with no windows.

"There's a door over here!" Fang yelled. "Maybe there's a window in the room it leads to." We all moved towards his voice and I opened the door a crack peeking through to see if anyone was in there. If the flyboys knew the layout of the building, they probably knew that these rooms connected and if there was another door in that room, you could bet they would've went through it. Luckily there were no others doors. Even more luckily, there was a window, but it was only big enough for one person to go through at a time. We filed through and Jeb locked the door behind us. We were in some kind of office.

"Omen, what floor are we on?"

"The seventh." I quickly did the calculations the way Jeb had taught me. Would we be able to catch the humans before the hit the ground? Already the Flyboys were doing their best impression of a battering ram on the door. Good thing it was metal like the cell door. The wooden one on the storage room obviously hadn't held up well.

"Flock, out the window first. Youngest to oldest," I instructed. Angel immediately took off out the window, then Gazzy, Nudge, and so on. I waited until the rest of the flock were out before turning to the wingless people.

"I want lightest to heaviest of you to go out the window, okay? We'll catch you and then we'll get out of here."

"But, Max. There's five of us and half of us are heavier than all of you," Jeb argued.

"Trust me, Jeb." He opened his mouth as if wanting to say something, but closed it and nodded.

"Ella, I think that means you go after Max," Mom said. She was SO cool. Not many moms would be able to deal with their daughters jumping out of a seventh floor window.

"Gotcha," Ella said.

"I will stay behind and distract them," Omen offered. I shook my head.

"Uh uh, mister," I said. "You saved us. You're coming with us. These guys legally OWN you now and I don't want them to experiment on you like they did us." Omen looked surprised. I smiled and jumped backwards out the window, turning in the air to catch myself with my wings. Then Ella appeared at the window and she jumped.


	25. Chapter 25

"Gazzy, Angel, Total! Go!" I yelled. They dived and did their best to keep Ella aloft, moving her away from the building's edge so when Mike who was next, fell, he wouldn't knock her out of their hands and teeth (Total's opposable thumbs were out for the evening). Mike poked his head out and looked down. He looked kind of green.

"Jump Mike!" I hollered. He jerked a little and then fell topsy turvy. I think someone pushed him. Nudge dived for him and caught him just before he went splat. I wouldn't want to land on the ground right underneath where he jumped. Then surprisingly, it was Mom who jumped. Wasn't Omen smaller than her? Iggy soared towards the ground and managed to grab the back of her shirt. I watched as he shifted her position so she was laying across his arms. Then Jeb appeared and Fang scooped him out of the air like it was nothing. Where was Omen? I would kill him if he made me go back in there to get him just because he was being brave. But no, there he was, jumping without hesitation. I dived towards the ground after him, spiraling for speed and gasped when he landed in my arms. That boy was heavy.

"Why'd you go last?" I panted.

"I am half metal. Metal is heavier than flesh." I had to agree. It had barely been five seconds and already my arms were groaning with complaints. I flew lower to where the rest of my flock were.

"Grab hold!" I commanded. "Nice and tight. Don't just grab my clothes!" They did, the flock instructing the non-flyers on how to hold on to me. Only the flock (and Mike, but he had been on a boat, so it didn't count) had ever warped with me before. I waited a few seconds after everyone was latched on to make sure my wings were free to flap and that they had tight grips before switching to warp. Light as a feather, they were. We were outta there.


	26. Chapter 26

V_oice? Are you there?_

_Yes, Maximum. I'm here._

_Where do we go?_ I was still flying in warp, my only objective to get away from that awful place. The others were silent and I think trying to go to sleep, but I made sure they stayed awake. I didn't want to lose anybody. But we had to go somewhere. I couldn't just fly around with ten people and a dog latched to me forever. Wait, where was Akila?

_They left her on the island. They thought she was a native animal._ The Voice said. I groaned, imagining Total's whining when he found out.

_I guess we're going there then. Is she still alive?_

_Yes. She's been surviving on the food you brought back the night before you were captured._ I sighed and changed course slightly. I knew for a fact I could get there in warp speed, even over the ocean. But we would have to stop at the coast so I could take a break. And we definitely couldn't stay there now that the whitecoats knew where it was. How had they even found us? All questions to be answered later when my people were safe and we were on the ground where I could sleep.

Eventually we came to the coast, after several hours of flight. I wasn't exactly sure where we had started out because I was still getting used to warp travel, but we on the coast of America closest to the Greek islands, NOW and that was all that mattered at the moment. I sent Iggy and Gazzy to find us a cave to sleep in and went with Fang and Angel to find some food and maybe some blankets. At the very least, we might be able to get some of our supplies back when we went to the island. That is if the whitecoats and flyboys hadn't destroyed it all.

When we met up again, the boys led all of us to a cave, about a hundred feet from the water well out of the tide line. Then Iggy cooked what we had the best he could and we all piled together with the few ratty blankets we'd scavenged and each other for warmth. No one seemed to notice or care that Mike, Omen, and Jeb were part of our pile. We were just too tired. I fell asleep within moments.

Fang watched Max sleep. The robot was back with them, for now at least. He wondered what she would do about that, but was too tired to think really hard. He was just glad they were free. It had hurt something deep inside him, and the others, to see the way Max kept her mouth shut despite all the opportunities the whitecoats gave her for a smart-aleck comment. That just wasn't the Max they knew. It had been good to hear her joking with the little ones during flight and arguing with Total about something or another. The others slowly fell asleep around Fang while he watched Max sleep and pretended to be asleep himself. When they were all out, he kissed Max's forehead and snuggled more deeply into the pile.


	27. Chapter 27

I woke up early the next morning, with my head pillowed on Fang's stomach, Total laying between my legs, Nudge's head on my stomach, Angel curled up between my side and arm, and Ella's head touching mine. Ella's and Nudge's legs were thrown over Mom's stomach and Mom's head was laying on Jeb's armpit. Mike was curled around my arm and Angel, his head on Fang's lap and Omen's head was on my leg near Total, his body between my left and Mom's torso.. Gazzy was laying against Fang's side, the way Angel was with me and Iggy was spread over top of everybody. One big happy family. Too bad I had to pee.

First I tried wiggling out without disturbing anybody, but unless I was some kind of magician or snake. That wasn't happening. Then I tried to get up, disturbing only a few people, but it caused a domino effect so everyone ended up awake and mad that they were.

"Come on, Max," Iggy whined. "Couldn't you have held it?" They all shifted once I was up, so everyone was snuggled tightly against each other again. I watched them with a small, proud, motherly smile on my face then headed out of the cave. We were like a litter of puppies or something. When I came back, they were in yet another position and I went to lay next to Fang, the only free space left. I put my head in his armpit and turned over, finding a corner of a blanket to pull over me. The morning would have to start soon and Iggy would need to make breakfast , something would need to be done about Omen and I would need to come up with some kind of harness system so I could warp with everybody and not worry about their grip loosening while we're flying over the ocean at top speeds, but for now, it was nice to just snuggled with my family and relax.

Fang turned over slowly so as to not wake anyone up again and cradled me against his chest.

"Good morning," he whispered.

"Don't start that again, eh," I replied, in a bad imitation of the vultures in Disney's version of the Jungle Book. Fang chuckled and kissed my temple. I didn't want to go through a whole scene with my family again about me and Fang sleeping together "leading to things".

"I won't. Not here," he said. I smiled and buried my head into his chest. Listening to my family breathe and even more loudly, Fang's heartbeat. I like relaxing. It was a nice change.

"We're gonna have to get to business soon," he stated.

"I know. But I'm taking a break for a few minutes. It's been a while since we've had traumatizing-worthy experiences and I gotta adjust." Fang chuckled again.

"All right," he said. We all rested together for a while with the pile slowly shifting to surround me again. Was I gaining Nudge's power only with people? I mean, first the Greek docks when they all landed on me and now, they're surrounding me in the cave bed? Yeesh.

But of course, my mission to save the world calls. I made everybody get up and Iggy heated up the leftovers from last night. I was glad the humans didn't mind dumpster-diving food. It was all we could find. After breakfast, it was time to talk.


	28. Chapter 28

Everyone settled down somewhere in the cave while I stood up, feeling like a conductor for an orchestra. Fang sat by the mouth of the cave to watch for intruders. I didn't feel all the way safe yet and he knew it.

"First things first," I said. "Omen, I don't know what to do with you. You've saved our lives, but you also tried to kill Fang and DID kill me, which would put you out on your own, no questions asked, but then the new whitecoats want to experiment on you too and no one should be put through that." Fang snorted and I glared at him. He sighed and looked back out the cave mouth. Mister silent and brooding. Anyhow.

"So guys, any thoughts or ideas?" I asked.

"If he stayed, it would be a wonderful opportunity to study him," Jeb said. Once a whitecoat, always a whitecoat.

"If Omen stayed, the point would be that he DIDN'T get studied, Jeb. Cool your whitecoat-y-ness." Jeb kind of shrunk into his shoulders, looking sheepish.

"Omen's GOTTA stay," Angel stated.

"Why's that, sweetheart?"

"He just does. I can tell by his thoughts. He knows stuff," she explained.

"Important stuff?" Angel nodded and I looked at Omen with raised eyebrows.

"When I was waiting for the others to jump, I looked through the files in the office. There were too many to carry since you had to catch me, but I have photographic memory. I can write everything down one hundred percent accurately and answer many questions based on what I remembered."

"Is everyone okay with Omen staying?" I asked, looking around. Everyone nodded except Fang which I had expected.

"I guess that settles it then. Omen stays with us.


	29. Chapter 29

I was surprised when Fang didn't react, but shrugged it off, figuring I'd have to deal with his anger later and continued with our "meeting". What next? Hmmm.

"Now, does anyone think they have an idea about how they found us? I thought we'd been super careful with the boat scene." They fell silent, thinking. Then Mike smacked his head and made a 'doh' sound.

"Of course. Max, when you warped us back home, you kept the boat in the water. That made massive waves which would've been recorded and all they had to do was study the wave patterns to figure out where we were going," he explained.

"Are you sure? I want to make sure we don't have any more chips inside us," I said.

"Well that's what makes the most sense, but if you think there's chips inside you, then we should check. You've stopped messing with my laptop, but there could be different ones that don't affect computer systems."

"Okay. We'll get that checked out. Mom, do you know somewhere we could get full body x-rays for everyone?"

"Well, we could do a cat scan, but the hospital would notice your bird-like qualities on the system." I paced, thinking. Maybe if we could sneak into a hospital and use the machine ourselves. It would be worth it if we found any chips that we could remove.

"Do you or Jeb know how to operate a cat scan machine?" I asked.

"Max. What are you thinking?" Jeb said.

"If we could sneak in and start using the machine, I don't think they would realize anything was wrong for a while. They have those lights that say 'in use' so no one would come in, and they probably wouldn't question it." The adults mulled it over and nodded. For that at least, I needed their permission because they would be the ones who would have to operate the machine.

"Good. While we're there, we can steal some surgery tools and Valium so we can do the surgery to remove any chips away from the hospital."

"But before any of that, we have to get Akila," Total whined. "My poor darling is probably starving and oh so lonely without me there."

"We'll get her Total," I soothed. He pouted, but nodded. Things were getting done. This was good.

"I don't know what to do with you wingless people. I don't want to separate or leave you guys anywhere, but we can't carry you around all the time and you'll get in the way if any flyboys attack."

"We didn't tell them our names, Max, or anything about us," Mom said. "Nudge could just disguise us and then we could go back to our lives before the island. As long as you call us regularly." I smiled.

"Nudge, is that okay?"

"Yeah. I'll miss everybody though." I noticed her gaze resting on Mike longer than the others and sighed. At least he wouldn't be around now.

"I'd like to stay with you guys," Mike said. Or not.

"Why?" I questioned.

"I can help you understand any information Omen gives you and hack into computers and databases from this new organization."

"Sorry, we already have a resident hacker," I replied. He looked at Nudge and she blushed.

"Might as well let him stay, Max," Fang said. "It'll keep Nudge quiet. I'm not in the mood to hear her whining about how she misses Mike."

Nudge squealed angrily and yelled, "Fang!" She looked at Mike nervously and then blushed at his grin. Too much drama.

"That's enough. For now, let's get out of here. I don't like staying in one place for longer than a day."

"My supplies are on the island," Nudge stated. "Let's go get Akila and then I can disguise Mom, Jeb, and Ella." I nodded and we all filed outside, everyone grabbing onto me before I took off, from standing still to warp-speed. They all squealed in surprise and I laughed. I loved my flock.


	30. Chapter 30

"Everyone, on their own," I whispered. I can't see any bad guys in warp speed." I slowed down and they took their own weight with their wings. The wingless hanging on to who had caught them before. Omen was underwater, running on his own steam. We were at our island. It had taken FOREVER to get here, even in warp, but we were here now and scouting the area to see if any whitecoats or flyboys had stayed on our island. They had at one point, but none were here now. You could tell by the way all of our stuff was dumped onto the beaches, the huts torn apart, and many, many paths torn through the forests.  
"Clear," I whisper-called. I got the same from the rest of the flock and we landed very quietly on the beach. Someone could still be there, in hiding.  
"Be careful," I said, again, quietly. "They know we escaped and that we might come back here to get our stuff. They might come back, and some might never have left. Find your hiking packs, fill them up and meet at the communal hut, got it?" They nodded and split up, scavenging for what they could find. Nudge was looking for her beauty supplies, Mike and Jeb for their computers and paperwork, Mom for her veterinarian supplies, Iggy and Gazzy went to see if either of our boats worked still, and the rest of us gathered necessities such as food, clothes, and blankets. I sent Total to sniff out Akila with special warning to be vigilant. He was going through the island on his own.  
"No go on the boats," Iggy reported. I nodded and the boys joined me, Fang, Angel, and Omen in searching for supplies. I had expected as much and it wasn't like I couldn't fly everybody somewhere safe. I'd just have to find a secret place on the island to get some rest first. Our packs were quickly filling and soon each of us had two hiking backpacks sitting all together in a pile, all of us waiting for Total. The others had already found and packed what they were looking for.  
"Flyboys!" Fang whisper-yelled. I looked around and saw them coming in fast.  
"Into the trees," I flyboys were just headed for the communal hut. As far as I could tell, they hadn't seen us yet. I would've given the order for up and away, but we couldn't leave without Total and Akila and the others wouldn't be able to stay airborne long with passengers and backpacks if I made them go up alone while I waited for Total by myself.  
We dived towards the cover the forest gave us, leaping into the branches so we could watch. You know the phrase: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I didn't want to lose sight of them while members of my flock were unaccounted for. The flyboys split up into three groups and started searching all the huts. I had a horrible feeling they were going to start searching the whole island next.  
"We have to keep moving," I hissed. They left Akila alone before, so if you find Total grab him and go. We'll have to come back for her another time. Got it?" They nodded and we started leaping through the trees like monkeys or something, splitting up to search the whole island as well. Oh, I hoped we would find Total soon. The humans seemed to be having trouble with the tree-to-tree jumping thing, so I made them stop.  
"Guys you know the cave we found by the stream?" I asked.  
"The one that's really hidden?" Ella replied. I nodded.  
"That's it. Go there and hide. We'll come for you when we find Total, okay?"  
"But Max," Mom argued.  
"No. Get to that cave, Mom. We know more about this kinda thing than you do. I know you're the mom, but if you don't do exactly what I say, this could end badly, okay?"  
"Jeb-"  
"Max is right, Valencia. This is what's best and we need to listen to her," Jeb stated. I smiled at him for the support.  
"Be careful, all right? And don't get caught because if you do, I'll have to kick everybody's butt and I'm kinda getting tired of that." Mom laughed softly and they dropped out of the trees, running towards the freshwater stream. Mom was so cool, but she had rarely had to deal with having to listen to me during a crisis. In fact, I think that was actually the first time. Boy, was she lucky she didn't get into situations that required listening to me exactly and immediately. Normally when that happens, I KNOW things are getting bad.


	31. Chapter 31

**AHH so guys i messed up big time. instead of putting part thirty one for part thirty one, i put part thirty two, so read this again and then go on to part thirty two which you've already read because it used to be this chapter. i'll put something in part thirty two as well so y'all know to look back. thanks so much and sorry for the confusion.**

"Come on, Total," I mumbled to myself. "Where are ya, boy?" I was doing expert flying, maneuvering around trees at slow speed, which surprisingly is a lot harder to do than when you do it fast. So far no signs of anybody, even the flock. That was either a good sign meaning they were doing a really good job of hiding themselves, or a bad sign, meaning they had been captured. I hoped it was the first one.

I nearly strangled myself on a tree branch when I heard panicked crying. I landed gently on the branch that had nearly decapitated me and looked around for the source of the noise. I had never seen a flyboy cry except for Ari so I doubted it was one of them. That left my flock.

I scanned the area around me and found Iggy, curled in the fetal position in a clearing, hands over his face and tears streaming through his fingers. My poor baby (I know, I know. It's weird to hear me say that about Iggy, but I'm too maternal for my own good). It sounded like he was was muttering 'too much, too much' over and over again. Oh no. He must have had a seeing panic attack.

I was tempted to fly to him immediately, but this looked a bit too much like a trap for my tastes. So I searched through the trees around the clearing for any flyboys or whitecoats waiting for me to land so they could ambush. There was no one.

"Iggy, Iggy," I cooed as I landed beside him. "Iggy, now's not the time to do this, sweetheart. You're fine okay? I'll just tie this around your eyes." I paused long enough to rip off a piece of my shirt long enough and thick enough to tie around his head and put it on him.

"And we'll be on our way, okay? You can do this without your eyes. Just calm down, please, please calm down." He nodded frantically and I lifted him into my arms, straining against his weight. Iggy was even taller than Fang, but after carrying Omen, he wasn't THAT heavy. I took off and flew back into the trees, landing on a sturdy branch to calm him down. I was just in time too.

Just as we were both hidden, three flyboys strolled into the clearing, looking around. For the first time, it occurred to me that these must be very advanced robots. Any robot that can travel through island forests looking for people with hopes of success must be a very intelligent robot, a very intelligent robot indeed. They even talked to each other like regular Erasers.

"I thought I heard something," one said.

"Me too."

"But there's no one here." Hey! They even used contractions. Hmm. Maybe this was a new breed of flyboys. I studied them and realized that their eyes were no longer robotic, but rather Eraser in color and design. But I could here their gears turning with my superhearing. Were they built like Omen was? Only, with better speech habits for blending in.

"Spread out. We'll find them." The others nodded at what appeared to be the leader of this group and they split into three different directions away from the clearing. Okay to make this clear. The first speaker was the leader and wore a blue shirt, the second speaker had a ring through the top of his ear, and the third had not distinguishing features besides the fact that he had no distinguishing features. So we'll call them Blue, Ring, and Plain Jane. Keep that in mind.

I froze when I realized that Plain Jane was headed straight towards our tree. Iggy was still mumbling and crying. Any Flyboy worth his salt would be able to hear him and realize we were up there. I settled Iggy back against the tree where branch met trunk and stood up, balancing on the branch, ready to fight as soon as we were discovered.

Plain Jane strolled forward, looking around with his head cocked for best hearing. I could almost see his ear twitch like a dog's does when it hears something interesting. He paused right under our branch. Maybe he wouldn't look up. Suddenly I was looking into Plain Jane's very real-looking Flyboy/Eraser/Omen-style-robot eyes. Or then again not.


	32. Chapter 32

**this should look familiar to everybody because this WAS part thirty one. you see, i accidently put part thirty two as part thirty one so there was some confusion and we skipped out a whole scene. so here's part thirty two. be sure to look back at part thirty one because the REAL one is there now. sorry for the confusion**

I dropped straight down on top of him. My leg straight out so it would hit him first and keep going. Maybe being kicked in the head with all my body weight would be enough to knock him out. Then the others wouldn't realize anything was wrong until they met up again and then found him laying unconscious. By then, Iggy and I could be long gone. Blue and Ring would definitely hear a fight.

Plain Jane grunted and hit the ground. I stood in battle-ready stance, waiting to see if he got up. You never approached your combatant until you were sure they weren't going to get up for a while. He groaned and started pushing himself up off the ground. Darnit!

I lunged forward and straddled Plain Jane's back, using my weight to try and hold him down. Then I grabbed him by the ears and slammed his face into the ground multiple times. Please, please, please die or go unconscious already. I was a humane person, but if my flock were in trouble, no morals could stop me. I think the Voice was annoyed with me about that little personality quirk. They were afraid I would put the flock before the mission. Of COURSE I would.

Plain Jane shifted under me and the next thing I knew, I was flying backwards through the air, and I wasn't the one keeping me aloft. I slammed into a tree several feet away and crumpled to the ground. Oof.

"I got one!" Plain Jane shouted. "The oldest female!" I heard two pairs of footsteps rushing back to us. Darnit again! I was still hurting from the collision with the tree, gasping because he'd knocked the wind out of me. And MORE were coming?

I struggled for purchase on the ground. Come on now, Max. You've dealt with worse before. This is nothing. The little pep talk seemed to be helping because I was able to stand fully straight and charge at Plain Jane. He grunted in surprise when our bodies smacked into each other at full tilt. You know why? Because the idiot was facing AWAY from me. Hadn't he ever learned basic fighting rules? I didn't mind his idiocy so much because my flock depended on me winning against him, but if it had been one of them, I would've given them a stern talking to and a thorough work through.

While he was still stumbling, I cupped my hands and brought them down hard over his ears. Plain Jane yelled out in pain and I dropped, spinning and kicking like I'd done with Fang in our practice fight. He fell even more heavily than Fang had. He started to get back up and I waited until he was on one knee, one foot, his hand on the ground for leverage and balance. Then I grabbed his head and smashed my knee into his face. I heard a few cracks. Hey! A double nose break. Awesome. After that he just fell over, cradling his face. I added an extra kick to the head which FINALLY knocked him out.

Since when had fighting Flyboys been so easy? I mean, it had been easy before, but this guy had only managed one toss during the whole fight. Maybe that was the downfall of these new models. Very human/Eraser- looking, but dreadfully easy to fight. Just as Plain Jane went down, Blue and Ring appeared in the clearing, snarling expressions on their faces. Jeez. Just one when goes down, two more show up. Oh well.


	33. Chapter 33

Fang flew low and quick, missing trees by inches. They needed to find Total and get out of there... fast. Where was that dumb dog?

"Fang!" He flicked his head around, pounding hard with his wings hard to stop just short of running face first into a tree. That was Total's voice.

"Total?"

"Over here. I found Akila. What's going on?" Fang landed and looked around, spotting both dogs hiding under some bushes. He jogged over and ducked under the branches next to them.

"Flyboys. We're leaving."

"I saw some so we hid. Where is everybody?" Total asked. He glanced at Akila, sending her a loving relieved smile.

"Hiding. Looking for you. Let's go," Fang stated. He grabbed Akila and took off, Total following. They flew for awhile, headed towards the freshwater cave. Hopefully they would meet the others there or on the way to tell them he had Total.

"Is that the best you got? You guys really have gotten worse since the last time we fought you," a voice yelled. Max? Despite the boldness of her words, Fang could hear the strain. Then he heard her grunt and a thump. Flyboys.

"Is that Max?" Total asked.

"Total, get Akila to the cave by the stream. We'll meet you there." He nodded as Fang set Akila down and Total started leading her to the right cave. Fang watched them go until he heard Max yell out in pain. That set his wings moving toward her voice.

I yelped in pain like Total does. Ring had just thrown me at a tree, much harder than Plain Jane had. I think he actually broke a bone or two. Crap. They were still coming at me. I guess not ALL of the new models were bad fighters.

Ring was laughing, you know that evil laugh that bad guys do, as he lifted a HUGE rock above his head and strolled forward. Um... THAT would hurt just a little bit. Unfortunately I was still recovering from my second or third tree slam and couldn't quite stand up yet. The best I could do was lift my arm and try to balance on my toes for a low kick.

Suddenly Fang was there, flying through the air feet first at Blue. His feet jammed straight into Ring's side and knocked him down, the rock landing on top of him. Ouch. I'd feel sorry for the guy if he wasn't a crazy evil Flyboy robot who had just about dropped that rock on MY head.

"Are you okay?" Fang asked.

"Yeah," I panted. "Just a few broken bones. Just scratches and bruises really." He sighed at me and rolled his eyes.

"Which bones, Max? Can you stand up?"

"Just my ribs, I think," I replied. He groaned then. Well, it's not MY fault these guys had a pension for throwing me at trees.

"Stay down. I don't want you to poke a lung," Fang commanded. It was my turn to roll my eyes and I did so emphatically. He shook his head. Ring was out for the count, but Blue was coming up behind Fang, quiet as a mouse, wielding a giant branch like a baseball bat.

"Fang!" I yelled and pointed behind him. He dropped and put his leg out spinning, ducking just in time to miss the Flyboy's swing. He must have learned that from me.


	34. Chapter 34

Blue lost control of his swing when Fang wasn't there to stop it. The combination of the force of his swing and Fang sweeping Blue's feet out from under him, made Blue fall right on top of Fang. I cursed and stood up, ignoring Fang's previous orders. Ow, ow, ow. Broken ribs were NOT fun bones to break. It felt like they were poking everything inside me, but I gritted my teeth against the pain and bent over to push Blue off of Fang. Instead Blue's hand shot up and grabbed my neck. Not good.

He stood up and kicked Fang's head, holding me up in the air by his grip on my neck. I was choking on the pressure of his human/robot fingers wrapped around my throat. Blue walked back to the tree where Ring had thrown me earlier and pinned me high up against it, hand still around my neck.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

"What others?" I choked around his grip. That earned me an extra slam against the tree trunk. My neck snapped back and my head bashed into the bark. I felt something warm trickling down my scalp. Well, while the new models may be weak fighters, they certainly weren't weak robots. My world spun for a moment and I felt like throwing up and I would have if it weren't for the strangle-hold he had on me.

"You know what others, Maximum Ride. Tell me now and the hurt will be less for you," Blue stated. I spit into his face. SLAM. Man, I was REALLY getting tired of being beaten into this tree. Couldn't they change it up every now and then and bash me into a DIFFERENT tree? Now my world wouldn't stop spinning and the thing I wanted most in the world was just ONE breath of air. I was starting to pass out.

"Fine then. I will hurt him until you tell me. Is that what you want, Maximum Ride?" Blue dropped me where I was and I gasped for air, my throat burning. Then he turned and grabbed Fang by the nape of his neck, lifting him above the ground. Major owness factor.

"Is that what you want?" Blue yelled and shook Fang around. "Or do you think we can make a deal? The others will be here soon and then... well, there will be no deal. You'll just be tortured until you tell us where the others are and then we'll take all of you back to the lab for more experiments and even more security than last time." Blue dropped Fang and walked back to where I was collapsed on the ground, leaning against the tree and trying to get my breath back. He crouched in front of me and cocked his head. This Flyboy was DEFINITELY different than the others. Since when did they know enough to make deals?

"Well, Max?" I was about to agree. I was about to say I'll tell you where they are, just let him go. I would lie about where they were of course and send Fang to get them out of there, but the whitecoats wouldn't get them in the end. I'd just have to give myself up. But then, Blue was gone. Like, one second he was there and the next he wasn't.


	35. Chapter 35

I looked around in confusion and the next thing I knew, there was a trail of destruction with Omen and Blue at the end of it. Blue looked a little less like Blue and a little more like hamburger meat, but the point was, he didn't have control of us anymore. I gasped in surprise when Omen showed up in front of me only half a second after I saw him several hundred feet away slamming Blue into trees.

"Are you all right?" Omen asked.

"Uh... Yeah. I-is Fang?" You can bet I was confused. While Omen was checking Fang over for breathing, pulse, bruises, and broken bones, I went through the scene in my head. He must have seen or heard us and warp-crashed into Blue and a long row of trees to protect us.

"He is all right. Four bones are broken in his wings and two finger bones are broken, but that is all. I do not think he will be able to fly." I groaned and struggled to stand up. Omen gently held me down with his hands on my shoulders.

"You are hurt too, Max. You must not move," he stated.

"Omen, if I don't move than we won't be able to get out of here. I'm the only one that can fly far with weight and we're a long way away from any safe place. They'll be searching Greece too." Omen sighed and nodded.

"You are right. It is practical. But it... hurts? Me to let you hurt yourself, even for others' well-being." Omen seemed confused about things, but I guess robots don't fall in love that often. It was kind of weird to think of him as in love with me, but so far it was turning out to be good. At least, this time around.

"Thank you, Omen. Do you think you could help me stand? I think I broke some ribs." He nodded and wedged under my left him, his right around my waist.

"We will stand on three," Omen said. "One, two, three." With some effort on Omen's part I was up with hardly any effort on mine. Strong little robot. We stumbled over to Fang and Omen helped me sit down next to him.

"Fang?" I asked. Was he even conscious?

"Max. Are you okay?" I breathed out a sigh of relief and leaned over, hissing out air from the pain. You're REALLY not supposed to bend over with broken ribs.

"I'm fine. We gotta get you outta here. I'll fly you to the cave and then I'll keep looking for Total," I said.

"You can't carry me, Max. You've got broken ribs," Fang groaned. He sat up, cradling his hands. "I can fly and you won't have to look for Total because I already sent him and Akila to the cave."

"YOU'VE got broken wing bones from Blue falling on you," I retorted. As if just noticing the pain, Fang winced and I watched his wing fall loose.

"Blue?" he asked.

"The leader. He had a blue shirt on and I needed to differentiate somehow." Fang laughed and stood up. He was fine except for his one hand and one wing. Omen helped me stand up again while Fang watched with worry.

"Maybe we should just walk," he suggested.

"I can fly with broken ribs, Fang. I've done it before."

"I know you have, but still-"

"That's enough. I'll carry you and we'll all go to the cave," I snapped. Fang was about to say something back when Omen interrupted.

"Perhaps I could fix this," he said.

"I'm flying," I growled.

"I am not arguing that. However, I could carry Fang since your ribs are broken and his wings are broken. We would all reach the cave with the least amount of pain or further injury." Fang and I shared a look. I knew he wouldn't want to be carried by Omen, but it was the best idea we had. He nodded and Omen picked him up, damsel in distress style.

"I'll meet you there," I said and took off, grunting from my ribs. Fang would be able to guide Omen to the cave. Unless they started fighting. Oy.


	36. Chapter 36

"Max!" Angel squealed as I entered the cave. You couldn't fly into it because of it's position. She charged at me and I winced before she even got to me, expecting the pain. I was surprised when she didn't run into me.

"Max, why do you hurt?" she asked. I remembered that she could read minds and was relieved. Fang and Omen showed up right then and Omen set Fang down.

"Because she's got broken ribs, she was nearly strangled to death, and from here, it looks like she's got a big gash in the back of her head," Fang answered. I remembered when Blue bashed my head into the tree and felt the pain come right back. The pain from my ribs had been blocking everything out, but as Fang started pointing them out, they ALL came back. OWWWWW!!!

Mom rushed forward and passed her hands over my arms and face, turning me around so she could inspect my head. Her gasp at the wound only made me worry worse. I fought off her hands and the pain in my chest from doing so and glared.

"I'll be fine. We have to get out of here, NOW. Is everyone here?" I looked around while they did a sound off. Either the flyers had given up searching for Total or they'd seen him on his way back because everyone was there.

"Good, let's go," I stated and turned around, marching out of the cave.

"Max, you can't fly in your condition. Especially with all of us," Jeb protested. "You need medical attention."

"Watch me," I growled. "Let's go!" Everyone reluctantly followed me out of the cave to a clearing where we could take off. I had flown for ten hours or more in warp speed, carrying everybody with me and while that wasn't any more energy consuming than regular flying, it was still a lot. Normally I took a break after five or six hours for food and rest. I'd also broken several ribs, had my head bashed into a tree, been strangled nearly to death as Fang so eloquently put it, and now I was going out for another ten hour flight without any rest or attention. But you know what? I DIDN 'T CARE. Even if it killed me.... I was going to get my family AWAY from this island and away from danger. Hopefully, sometime in the future, we would be able to come back. After all, this was our first home since the house in the mountains, but if we couldn't, it didn't matter. Just as long as they survived.

"Let's go," I repeated. They all latched onto me and I picked up Akila since she didn't have any hands to hold onto me with. Angel held Total. As soon as everyone was secure, I took off. We were outta there. Ouch.


	37. Chapter 37

Alexia Vasquez was in her kitchen cooking dinner when she got a call. As far as any of her neighbors knew, she was just a normal single mother of two that worked at a bakery, but in actuality, she worked in top secret experimentation labs. Or she HAD until her main project was cut loose. Omega 2.0. Since then, she really had become a normal single mother of two that worked at a bakery. That's why the call was surprising.

"Alexia."

"Boss! I haven't heard from you since-"

"Since I gave you the order to cut Omega 2.0's ties to us. You did do that, didn't you?"

"Yes, sir." Alexia was glad her kids weren't at home. Even just her end of the conversation wouldn't be for their ears.

"Then why was he seen helping the avian/human recombinant DNA experiments escape?" he asked, voice rising. "I thought you told me he couldn't survive without our help!"

"He can't, sir. Or at least, I don't think he can. We cut off all ties, sir, I swear!" He was alive? Her pet project? Her baby? Alexia tried to hide the relief and excitement in her voice.

"Was he really seen helping them?" she asked.

"Yes. He protected the oldest female, Max from one of our latest EraserBots," he answered.

"But-"  
"I know, Alexia. She was supposed to have expired MONTHS ago. I don't know how she's still alive." Her boss sounded tired and strained. So many experiments had gone wrong or off the mark in the last decade or so. It seemed as if their organization was just, not as good anymore. But then, maybe it was just because these were the School's experiments. The School was just child's play compared to their science and resources. It was no wonder all of their work was malfunctioning.

"Alexia, I want to believe that you ended all ties, but I can't take that chance. We have your children. End whatever last tie you have to Omega 2.0 and we'll let them loose. Otherwise, well, you worked here before. You know all the things we can do to them."

"Please, sir! I assure you, I didn't leave anything out when we ended everything. Your clean up crew even went through the wreckage to make sure-"

"Enough simpering, Alexia. That is beneath you. You have forty eight hours. Good evening, Alexia." Then he hung up. Alexia cradled the phone in a daze. Though she was a cold, scientist b***h like her coworkers had used to call her, she was terrified for her children. She knew what the organization could do to them and it wasn't exactly pleasant. She had to save them somehow. But she'd told the boss the truth. She had even CRIED when they blew up the Omega complex because that meant the end of her life's work, but what could she have done. She was only one more piece of meat in the food chain of the organization.

AHHHHHHHH!!! We'd only been flying an hour, or less, and the one and only thought in my mind was the pain. It overwhelmed everything in me until I saw white and I didn't want to live anymore. It was almost worse than my headaches, and if you've been with us since the beginning, you know how bad those were. And I had thought the gunshot was bad.

I think we were somewhere over Spain or Portugal when Fang forced me to focus on him. It took so much concentration, that I had to add 'headache' to my list of pains.

"Max. You're bleeding out of your mouth," he stated. "I think you poked a lung. You need to land." He was talking short, slow, clear sentences, but it still took me a second to understand him.

"But, we're almost to the ocean," I replied. "Can't we at least keep going until we reach the beach?"

"Honey, I can speak Spanish, not Portuguese," Mom said. You need to land while we're still in Spain, okay?"

"But-" I started again.

"Max. Land NOW," Fang ordered. I nodded and flew to the ground, looking for somewhere to land secretively.

"Just land. We'll worry about secrecy after we get you some help," Fang groaned.

"But-" He glared at me and another flash of even more extreme pain shot through me, so I just nodded and landed on the first piece of ground I came to. Everyone let go and backed off, giving me space. I was just now tasting the blood Fang had been talking about. They took Akila out of my arms and Mom knelt by me, checking my vitals and feeling where the broken ribs were.

"You've definitely broken ribs. And you've got internal bleeding. We have to get you to the hospital," she said.

"My wings," I mumbled.

"I don't care. We'll get them to sign a secrecy agreement or something. But right now, we need to get you some professional equipment. We can get the cat scans done and maybe even the surgeries too while we're there." I nodded. Jeb started to pick me up and I screamed from being jostled. He winced and let go, leaning back.

"I can't carry her," he said. "It's just making the wounds worse." Everyone looked around. I had put us down in an empty parking lot somewhere and it seemed as if no one was close by. There was some residential buildings and Mom stood up.

"I'll go ask someone to use their phones to call an ambulance. I'll be right back," she said. I nodded and Fang took her place, kneeling by my side. We watched her run up to a house and bang her fist on the door, then we looked at each other. The only emotion showing on his face was a furrow between his eyebrows and a slightly more pronounced frown. I think he was shielding himself from too much pain and worry about me. I tried a smile at him. He tried a smile back. I saw Mom come back to us and then I passed out.

I went in and out, seeing only moments at a time: Mom chattering in Spanish with a serious expression on her face while we rode to the hospital in an ambulance, being rushed to somewhere on a gurney, the doctors cutting off my shirt and gasping at my wings, then nothing for a long, long time.


	38. Chapter 38

I woke up in what I think was an observation room, so white I had to squint to see. The strong, antiseptic smell wasn't much better. One entire wall was glass with computers and chairs and machines behind it. My bed was set up right in the middle and as I looked around, was surrounded by chairs filled with my family. They all looked asleep. There were no windows to the outside, which made me freak out for a few seconds, but then I calmed myself down and found a wall clock. It was nearly one in the morning. No wonder they were asleep. I would leave them be... for now.

I did a quick body check, searching for pain. All I felt was numbness. No pain, just kind of a sleepy, happy state. Was I paralyzed? I had another panic attack then I saw the label on my IV. Morphine. I let out a sigh of relief, which because of the morphine, looked like a purple cloud, then rested my head against the pillow. There was something between my head and the pillow. After a few minutes of hard thought, I remembered the would in the back of my head. It must be gauze or something.

Just then a doctor came in, checking something on his clipboard. I think he must have thought I would still be asleep, because he jumped when I talked.

"What?" he asked, in a very heavy Spanish accent. I was slurring badly from the morphine. I concentrated hard and exaggerated the movements my mouth made when speaking.

"How long have I been here?" I asked.

"Three days," he replied. "I'm glad to see you up." His voice echoed in the largely empty room and I winced, glancing at my family. They must have been really tired to not wake up, especially after all our reinforced training. The doctor realized what I was worried about and spoke in a whisper.

"I'm Doctor Alverez. You're very lucky, Max. If you had landed even ten feet to the left, the ambulance would have taken you to the local hospital."

"I-I'm not at the local hospital?" I questioned.

"No. This is a very special hospital for celebrities who are hurt or sick and don't want to go through the fans they have to deal with," Dr. Alverez stated.

"How's tha-"

"Your wings, Maximum. If you had been taken to any other hospital in Spain, you would have been studied and people would know where you were. I saw the explosion on TV and I know you are trying to hide from people trying to kill you. This is the best place you could possibly be." He beamed at me and I groaned.

"No it's not. The best place wouldn't involve doctors," I mumbled. "No offense. I just don't like them." He nodded and checked his clipboard again.

"I know. You've been doing remarkably well. At the rate you've been healing, you should be able to leave within the week. That's really good considering your injuries." I would have translated that to four days, but since he had already had me three days and was able to calculate my rate of healing, I believed him. Plus broken bones take longer to heal. Ten days for healing them was reasonable for flying bird kids. Regular kids had to wait something like six weeks.

"And what all are my injuries?" I prodded, then waited for the list.

"Five broken ribs, skull fracture, concussion, punctured lung, internal bleeding, and exhaustion," he rattled off. I winced. That sounded like a lot.

"How is exhaustion an injury?"

"If you had gone on much longer, you would have collapsed." I winced again and closed my eyes.

"Is that why you let me sleep even though I had a concussion?" I asked. You weren't supposed to let people with concussions fall asleep because they might never wake up. Jeb had taught us that.

"Yes," Dr. Alverez stated.

"What about them?" I said, opening my eyes and gesturing at my flock, "I know at least one of them got hurt also."

"We set Fang's broken bones and they healing just as well as your are. No one else was hurt." I sighed in relief.

"And has my mom talked to you about what we want to do?" I added. Dr. Alverez nodded. I think I was being really clear-headed considering the morphine being pumped into my bloodstream. After the first few sentences, I had even stopped slurring so much.

"Yes."

"And?"

"We've been waiting for you to wake up. I'll schedule the scans when I leave here. Now, how are you feeling?" I did another body check and found I was the same.

"I don't know. How much morphine are you giving me?" I replied.

"A lot. You seem to burn through it quicker. We even had to triple the nutrients and vitamins we put in your IV because of your fast calorie intake." I smiled.

"Well... it kinda hurts when I sigh, but just a sting. You're sure I can get out of here in a week?" Dr. Alverez nodded.

"I'm sure. Now lie still while I check the machinery, okay?" I rested my head back again and let him go about his doctor-y business. It was hard not to freak out and start kicking whitecoat butt, but I managed.

"There we go. I'll see you later, Max," he said, smiling. I nodded and he left. I think he injected more morphine into my IV because I was suddenly very very tired and slaphappy. I went back to sleep and dreamed the WEIRDEST things. Oh well. At least they weren't nightmares. On morphine, I was pretty sure those would really SUCK.


	39. Chapter 39

The next time I woke up, I woke up to shouting. Ugh.

"She was awake? Why didn't you wake US up?" Fang yelled. I heard Dr. Alverez reply.

"Because she didn't want to wake you. And all of you needed rest," he answered simply. Fang grumbled and I heard the sound of one of those plastic chairs groaning as he sat back down.

"I just wish I'd been awake when she was," he mumbled, too low for human ears. I whispered back just as low, keeping my eyes shut and my mouth still.

"Well, now you are," I said. "Pretend I'm still asleep."

"Why?" Fang asked. I could tell the others were sleeping by their even breaths. Even Fang SHOUTING hadn't woken them up? Were they drugged too?

"Later." Then Dr. Alverez spoke.

"I have other patients to check on. I'll be back when it's time for your cat scans." There was the sound of Fang's chin and hair brushing his collar as he nodded then the doctor's footsteps leaving. I waited until the door was shut and I couldn't hear his steps anymore before opening my eyes and turning my head to look at Fang. I was still afraid to sit up.

"Why-" he started.

"No reason. I just wanted to see if we still had it," I said, wishing I could laugh without fear of making pain come. Normally when you wake up while on morphine, that means it's wearing off and THAT meant that I might start hurting again real soon. Fang laughed though and I smiled.

"I thought you had reason to not trust him," he stated. I shook my head.

"Nope. Is anyone else awake?"

"No. They've been running around getting food and presents for you and tailing the doctors," he whispered.

"That's my flock," I said, voice full of pride. We smiled at each other for a moment, then I made a decision.

"Will you help me sit up?" I asked.

"Why? You wanna see if you can?"

"No, I'm just tired of laying down. I don't like feeling helpless."

"You're never helpless," Fang sighed. "Come on." He stood up and came forward, sliding one hand behind my head and the other around my waist, gripping my arm opposite him. Together, we managed to get me into an upright position and arrange the pillows so that they propped me up. I probably could have done it by myself, but that would have hurt a lot more. And I wouldn't get to hang on to Fang for a few minutes. Jeez, when did I get so touchy-feely?

"Thanks," I muttered, not liking the latest self-revelation. I think he figured it out too, because he gave me a smug smile as he reached out to hold my hand. I let him take it.

"You're welcome." More goofy smiling at each other, but it was okay for me because I was on morphine and we all know how I get when I'm on pain meds. If anyone else saw us, they would tease him more than me about it.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Eh. The morphine kinda blocks everything out," I replied. He sighed and rested his head on the mattress by our interlaced fingers.

"Are you okay?" I prodded.

"Yeah. Just tired. And I wouldn't let them give me anything for the pain. At least one of us has to have a clear head, and if you DIDN'T have the medicine, then you'd be in too much pain to be clear-headed. I'd rather you were ditzy because you aren't in pain." He knew me too well. But I wish he wasn't the one that had to deal with the pain.

"If you're tired, then go to sleep. I'll wake you up when the doctor comes to get us."

"I'm fine," he stated firmly. Well, there's a role reversal for ya. Normally I was the one arguing to stay awake when I needed the sleep. I rolled my eyes, but let it go. I would be absolutely bored without the company. I looked around at my sleeping family and smiled. Then frowned.

"Where's Omen?" I asked.

"Without his connection to whatever created him, he doesn't have any way to charge, except to stand in the sun for hours with these little solar panels sticking out everywhere. I think he went to the roof for privacy." We were quiet for a while then Fang sighed again and turned his head, which was still resting on the mattress to look up at me.

"It drives me CRAZY that he was the one that saved us, but I'm glad he did."

"You're jealous," I teased. Fang scowled and sat up.

"I am not," he argued.

"Yes you are. You just said. YOU wanted to be the one to save us and be the hero," I said, smiling. His scowl deepened and I laughed. Then winced at the pain. If I laughed again, I was liable to puncture my other lung.

"Are you all right?" he asked, going from righteous indignation to concern.

"I'm fine. Just gotta remember not to laugh," I breathed, trying to keep small breaths, so I wouldn't move my ribs too much. Fang let out a small, relieved sigh with a hint of laughter. I smiled at him, then he leaned forward and pressed our lips together for a burning, painless moment. Then he leaned his forehead against mine.

"You know, you're getting hurt a little more often then I like. Do you think you could change your promise to include not getting hurt?" he whispered.

"Sorry. People just like beating me up too much." Fang laughed and kissed my forehead then leaned back in his chair, still holding my hand.

"Right. I forgot about that." I did a Fang-lip-quirk at him and closed my eyes, leaning back against the pile of pillows holding me in the upright position. The morphine was wearing off faster and I started to feel all the little grievances from my fight with the new Flyboys. Ugh.

"There's a button that sends you another dose of morphine when you need it," Angel offered. "It's by your right hand." I opened my eyes in surprise and looked at her.

"Hey sweetheart. Did you just wake up?" I asked. She nodded and pointed at my right hand. I looked down and saw a little white box with a button on it connected to a wire. I couldn't tell where the wire went to from my position.

"You're sure?" She nodded again and I picked it up, then pushed the button with trepidation. I hadn't forgotten the pizza bomb. Nothing happened at first, but after a few minutes, the pain started to ease away.

"All better?" she asked.

"All better. Thank you, Ang." She beamed at me and went to sit on Fang's lap. He let go of my hand to hold her up and she grabbed it instead.

"It was scary, Max. You had blood coming out your mouth and then you started mumbling how much it hurt and that you didn't want to feel anymore. Or at least, I think that's how it went. You mighta been thinking it, but it was so loud I couldn't tell the difference." I glanced at Fang and he sent me a worried smile.

"Oh honey. I'm sorry you had to hear that. I'm better now, okay?" I cooed.

"Okay." She smiled at me and climbed up on the bed, snuggling into the space between my arm and side. Angel was very careful not to move me or push against my ribs and for that I was glad, even with the morphine. Fang took my hand again and we all waited in a peaceful silence for the others to wake up and for Dr. Alverez to come back.


	40. Chapter 40

"Max? Max, sweetheart, time to wake up. We're going to do the cat scans." I groaned and looked up to see Mom gently prodding me awake. Maybe that dose from the button had more morphine than I thought.

"Great," I mumbled. "Is everyone else up?" She nodded and I realized that Angel wasn't laying with me and Fang wasn't holding my hand anymore. I looked around and saw several doctors waiting to wheel me to the cat scan room. Dr. Alverez came forward.

"We're going to do you first. Dr. Valencia said you would want to be involved in the examinations of the others." I noticed someone behind him was quietly translating for the other doctors. Only ONE of my doctors spoke English? Unless, the translator was a doctor as well.

"Okay then. Scan me away." He smiled and signaled at the other doctors (or were they possibly nurses?) to push my gurney to the cat scan room. I smiled reassuringly at my family who were all sitting or standing around the room. Everyone was there except Omen who was up on the roof charging and Mom and Jeb who were following the doctors. I think they were going to be part of the consulting team, especially since they knew the most about our anatomy.

The doctors transferred me to a different bed, that was flatter and connected to a giant machine which I assumed was what they used to do cat scans. Then they left me alone in the room and a few minutes later, I heard Mom's voice over some speakers.

"Honey, I need you to lie very still with your arms down by your sides, okay? The bed is going to move in a minute and it will pull you into the machine. Take deep breaths, close your eyes, and don't move until we tell you it's okay." I nodded, knowing they could see me through the windows, but not sure if they would be able to hear me.

"Good. Now, here we go," she added. The machine jerked into life and the bed started sliding ever so ominously into the tiny circular hole I was supposed to keep still in. Didn't she know I was claustrophobic?

"Mom, Mom, I can't. It's too small. My wings won't fit," I said, panicking slightly.

"Yes they will, Max. Just keep them tucked into your back, okay?" I nodded frantically and tried to follow her earlier advice. Closed eyes, deep breaths. Relax. Yeah right.

Once the bed stopped moving, I wouldn't dare open my eyes for fear that I would freak out and break the machine. But even with my eyes shut tight, I could feel the walls closing in around me.

"Breathe, Max," Mom whispered. I tried and kept trying until the bed started moving out again. That's when I let myself panic and tried to jump off.

"I said wait until we say it's okay, Max!" Mom yelped. "The machine's still on!" I froze with my eyes wide open. Mom, Jeb, and the doctors came in and I finally let myself have a near full on panic attack, which was ridiculous since I was already out, but phobias never make sense.

They eventually calmed me down, got me into a wheelchair, and brought me into the observation room to watch the others' cat scans. Luckily they let me keep the magic little white box that fed me a dosage of morphine every time I pushed the button.

After everyone had been scanned, we gathered in the doctor's diagnosis room to examine the prints of our scans. What we saw was not good.

Every single one of us had at least one chip. And that was AFTER we had removed the one in my arm, and the one in Iggy's head. Even worse, they were embedded into our muscles and tendons like the one that we'd removed from me had been. Remember, I had lost the use of my arm for awhile after that? That is until the whitecoats fixed it to try and make us think that our entire runaway lives had been simulated. Ha! What a joke.

"I've never seen anything like this," Dr. Alverez said. "Obviously the bird-like modifications are quite new to me, but I've never seen so many technological implants since I worked on the world's most-known oldest man. He had fake everything." I kind of grimaced at the thought.

"Do you think we can remove these?" I asked.

"I don't think so. These appear to have been inside all of you for years. Your body has grown around them like a tree grows around a nail in it's side." I felt like crying. Hadn't we had enough? Did they REALLY have to have so many tracking chips on us? For so long?

"Could you try?" I prodded.

"Well, we could. But you might loose use of the muscles surrounding them," he answered. It was pretty much what Mom had told me when she found the chip in my arm. We sat in melancholy silence for a while. It seemed there was no escape. Nudge started crying and I pulled her onto my lap.

"It's okay, Nudge. We'll think of something," I cooed.

_Mike has an idea._

_Voice! I haven't heard from you in a while. Why do you keep not talking to me?_

_Because most of the time you don't need it. Now ask Mike what he's thinking._ The Voice left before I could question it and I looked at Mike. He seemed deep in thought.

"Mike, you have an idea," I stated. He jumped and looked at me in surprise.

"I thought Angel was the mind reader," he said.

"She is. But I've got something special of my own. Now, what are you thinking?"

"Well, if I could borrow a computer with internet, there's the website I created that allows me to download programs that would help me decode those chips and figure out what they're for. If they're not for tracking, then we won't have to worry about the, but if they are, then I can stop them from working," he said.

"What the heck would you create a website like that for?" I asked. He just grinned slyly at me and we all looked at Dr. Alverez.

"Well?" I said.

"What?"

"Can you get him a computer?"

"Of course. I'll get right on it." Dr. Alverez spoke some quick Spanish to one of his consultants and they ran off. Maybe we were on the right track. I hoped we were anyway. Oh please, let this be the thing we need to stop them from tracking us ever again.


	41. Chapter 41

Alexia was fuming and scared at the same time. Her children were in the hands of that-that PIG and she was forced to make bakery deliveries to the hospital! She needed to find out how to find Omega 2.0 or find a way to rescue her children from their holding place. Finding Omega 2.0 would be easier.

"Hola. Me llamo Rosita, de la panadería? Tengo entregas," she said to the woman behind the main desk. In English, it meant: _Hi. My name is Rosita from the bakery? I have deliveries._ Rosita was a fake name, but so was her job as a baker. She was a scientist at heart.

"Oh. Si, si. Aquí está el paso de su visitante. Puedo hacer que alguien le demuestre la manera, si usted tiene gusto," she replied. _Oh. Yes, yes. Here is your visitor's pass. I can have someone show you the way if you like._

"No. Puedo manejar." _No. I can manage._ The clerk smiled and went back to work. The easy cheeriness of the woman made her grit her teeth. Alexia traversed the hospital, making her deliveries to the sick and the visiting. They seemed to think she would squeal in excitement when she saw their famous faces, but they were just people, most of them beyond idiotic. Not worth her time. Then, on her way out, she heard something that made this entire trip worth everything:

"Where's Omen?" Wasn't that what Omega 2.0 had the avian/human recombinant DNA experiments call him? It was a girl's voice and though Alexia had never heard any of the flock's voices before, she was guessing this was one of them. What were they doing in the hopsital?

"Without his connection to whatever created him, he doesn't have any way to charge, except to stand in the sun for hours with these little solar panels sticking out everywhere. I think he went to the roof for privacy." A male voice now. Solar panels? Without his connection? Created? This was definitely the flock and they were definitely talking about Omega 2.0. Alexia paused a moment more to listen for more information then she headed straight for the closest elevator. She had to get to the roof.

Omen was resting on his back with eyes shut, so that even the solar panels on his eyelids would gather light. His last charge had been over two weeks ago and it was not even a full charge. His resources were seriously depleted. Really, he could not afford to go so long between charges, but there was not really much light on the ocean bottom. Hopefully, there would be enough sunlight and enough time for him to gather it today.

"Omega 2.0!" Omen was off his feet, in a full battle-stance, body humming with tension while he looked for the approaching danger. He nearly crumpled when he saw Mistress in a mostly white outfit with a blue apron tied around her waist and large basket in her hands. Even though the clothes were not intimidating, seeing his mistress was.

"Mistress," he said, in what would be a weak voice if he had learned how to put emotions into his words.

"Omega 2.0. You're alive."

"Yes, Mistress. And... I am Omen now." He watched her eyes flash angrily. This was not good.


	42. Chapter 42

Someone had FINALLY gotten Mike a computer and he was typing away. I think you had to have all sorts of passwords to be able to download the program on his website because he still hadn't downloaded the program. I was pacing back and forth while the others lounged around my room. Dr. Alverez seemed upset that I was walking around with five broken ribs, skull fracture, concussion, punctured lung, internal bleeding, and exhaustion under my belt. The morphine was doing it's job though, because I didn't feel any of that.

"Okay, it's downloading," Mike annouced.

"Finally," I complained.

"Well, I didn't want just ANYBODY downloading this program. Can you imagine the havoc they could cause? I had to put up every security device I know... TWICE just to be sure. Then I had help from other hackers, one new security measure from each of them so none of them would know everything I had. I have to be careful with this. If anyone else knew about it, I'd be history and my program would cause all sorts of-"

"Havoc, I know," I sighed. "I'm just not very patient."

"Ya think?" he mumbled. I stalked over and grabbed the front of his shirt. Dr. Alverez took a step forward as if he was going to stop me, but I glared at him and he backed down.

"What did you say?" I asked.

"Nothing, nothing."

"My ENTIRE family is relying on you right now, Mike. If this doesn't work? Well, then we might as well turn ourselves in to the whitecoats and be done with it. You don't UNDERSTAND these people. The tracking chip, helps them out a LOT, but they'll be able to find us without it. Stopping the chips, just gives us enough time to get ready for them." Mike nodded and I set him back down just as Omen came in.

"Am I-"

"You're fine, Omen. Are you all charged now?" I asked. He nodded. There was something off about him, but I couldn't put my finger on it. He seemed... worried. Hmm.

"Grab a seat. We've got a wait on our hands." He nodded again and sat down. I glanced around at everyone else and saw Jeb smiling proudly. Fang looked amused. I rolled my eyes, let out a small scream of frustration, and threw my hands in the air.

"I quit. I'm going to get some food. Doc, where's the cafeteria?" I said. These people and this waiting in this one, all-white room were driving me crazy.

"First floor. Just follow the signs," he replied. I don't think patients were allowed to leave the room with the kind of injuries I had, but Dr. Alverez was learning fast not to mess with me.

"Anyone else hungry?" Angel, Nudge, and Gazzy stood up. I looked at the guys, but they shook their heads. Total hopped off the hospital bed and trotted out the door ahead of us.

"Come on, ladies and gentleman. I'm starving and I'm sure this hospital for the celebrities is full of delicacies," he called from the hallway. Doc Alverez looked a little pale. The wings and air pockets and hollow bones were plenty easy to accept, but the talking dog was always a little harder to accept. I grabbed the pole my IV was hanging on and followed him. I was glad the doctors and nurses had let me dress in regular clothes after the cat scan. Hospital gowns were horrible and made you feel even more frail than you were. Something about the way you couldn't defend yourself without flashing.

Nudge started talking right away, "Ooh, maybe we'll see Shakira. Do you think she'd give me an autograph? Ooh-"

"Nudge, the point of this hospital is so that the celebrities DON'T have to deal with all their fans. If you see someone, keep it cool, okay?" She nodded, but only a moment later she was off again, rattling off the names of all the celebrities she knew that were born in or lived in, or had family members from Spain. Oy.


	43. Chapter 43

I was avoiding the amazed looks we got from people who recognized me and the kids from TV or from attending one of the events we were part of as the face of CSM. I knew pretty much no one, though Nudge was practically shaking with excitement as she saw more and more famous people. Not all of them were Spanish even.

"Get some food, Nudge," I whispered. "Stop gawking." She blushed and picked up two trays and quickly filled them to overflowing. I knew that was just to start. The rest of us filled two trays just as high and found a table to sit at amid our own gawkers. It was really starting to make me nervous. What would happen if these people decided to 'go public' with our whereabouts? Things would go even more downhill than they already were.

"Chill out, Max." I jumped and looked up at Fang in surprise. He pulled out a chair and turned it around as he sat down so his arms and chin rested on the back. I rolled my eyes and did an automatic 360 scan.

"Any of these people could say something or even just drop a hint and the whitecoats would find us just like that," I replied, using my flock voice. He had done the same when he told me to chill out.

"But they're not going to because all of them have signed a confidentiality agreement and because they don't want you to talk about them being here." It was too hard to argue with logic. Grr. I decided to change the subject.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked.

"In your room. They'll come down and tell us when the program's uploaded. Mike said he didn't want to leave the computer for even one second now that the hacking program's being put in. He started talking about wreaking world-wide havoc again. I had to get away," Fang answered and quirked his lips. Remember, we were still in public. I smiled back and pushed one of my trays in front of him.

"Might as well eat. All the food you can want for free," I said, then thought about the hospital bill we were sure to get. After all this was a hospital for super-rich celebrities, not bird-kids on the run. "Sorta." He quirked his lips again and started eating. Mom, Jeb, Ella, Akila, and Omen came down soon after that. Iggy was staying so he could report to us when the program was done. We spent an hour eating, most of that hour was refilling our trays. What can I say? We have a fast calorie intake and we didn't know where our next meal would be coming from. Even if we decided to stay a little bit longer for whatever reason, something could happen that would make us have to leave, for example whitecoats appearing or Flyboys attacking (the new ones. We really needed to come up with a name for those. Maybe 2.0's because they were based of Omega 2.0's design. Hmm). Speaking of whitecoats appearing, Dr. Alverez appeared by our crowded table.

"Mike says the program is done. He's already working on Iggy's chips," he said.

"Is that why HE'S not the one telling us this?" I asked. It seemed suspicious to me. Hadn't the whole point of Iggy staying up there and not eating been to come down to tell us when it was done? Had Doc Alverez attacked him?

"Yes. He also said that you wouldn't want him to leave Mike alone with me. Something about my doctor's coat?" I smiled and stood up.

"That's my boy. Come on everybody," I called. They all rose and dumped their trays (there were only wrappers left) and followed me to our room. I made sure Dr. Alverez was in front. I was quickly learning that the School and this new organization knew a lot more about us than we ever imagined. For example, they knew enough to make up a lie like that. It kind of worried me that the doctor was so nice and he wasn't absolutely fascinated with our anatomy, though he was interested by it. Just not as much as a doctor who saw it for the first time. Something about their scientific minds wouldn't let them just leave it alone.

"Now, what you're about to see may upset you, but Mike said it was necessary in order to connect to the chip," Doc said. My bird-kid senses tingled. This didn't sound good. He opened the door and let us go in first. What I saw made me snarl like a dog.


	44. Chapter 44

Iggy was lying on the hospital bed, his wrists and ankles held down with Velcro straps. His eyes were wide open and he was panting from pain and fear. Two doctors were bent over his stomach with surgery tools in their hands and a large gash in his stomach. When they heard me, they looked up in fear. Mike was typing away at his computer like nothing was wrong and had a wire going from the computer to one of the doctor's hands. It looked like they were planning on sticking it in Iggy's gash.

"What the HELL is going on here?" I yelled and darted forward, ready to kick whitecoat butt.

"It-it's okay, Max," Iggy panted. I looked at him in surprise. Had they drugged him too?

"Mike... needs to b-be connected to th-the chips so he can ha-hack them." Iggy groaned and his breathing sped up.

"I w-wouldn't let them use... an-anesthetics until you got here."

"Mike?" I prodded. He glanced up and back down.

"Yeah. I can't hack if I don't have a connection," he mumbled, engrossed in whatever he was doing.

"Why didn't you TELL me that?" I said, shouting again. He flinched and finally stopped typing.

"I didn't know it until I tried to hack the first time without a connection. There's too many devices around me for me to be able to narrow down on the chips in Iggy, let alone just one of them. I have to have a direct line." I didn't like that idea. If he had to cut Iggy open to look at every chip, Iggy was gonna be like Swiss cheese by the time we were done. I looked around the scene with new eyes. Iggy was straining to not strain against the straps holding him down and not to move away from the doctors and their tools. It was tough for him and explained the fear. I growled and sat down in one of the chairs by Iggy's head.

"I don't like it, but I don't have much of a choice. Give him some sleepy drugs so he doesn't have to feel this." The doctors nodded and injected Iggy with some clear liquid. Within moments he was asleep, no longer straining against his instincts and fears. I sighed and leaned back in my chair.

"Get it done and hurry up." One of the doctors spoke rapid Spanish to Dr. Alverez, glancing at me all the while.

"He says you shouldn't be in here," Alverez translated. "You could infect the opening." I glared at the doctors and they went right back to work.

"I'm staying right here. Don't worry I won't touch it or breathe on it or anything. I'm just gonna sit here." Doctor Alverez nodded and the rest of my family sat down. It was nerve-wracking to watch them probe Iggy's abdomen for the chip with tools and the wire. Eventually they found the chip and touched the wire to it. Mike's face lit up and his fingers flew across the keys.

"Got it," he mumbled. Then continued, saying a million computer terms and phrases I would never understand. Nudge watched over his shoulder with awe.

"Well?" I asked. "Is it a tracker or not?" There was a moment of silence, then he looked up at me with fear.

"It's a tracker all right, but not like any I've ever seen. It will take me hours to even reconfigure the main frame. These people are HUGE. Hackers and computer scientists have only DREAMED of this kinda thing." He went back to work on the computer and I groaned. He had no idea.

"This really is gonna take hours. Maybe you all should walk around or something?" Mike suggested, not even slowing down on the keys. I looked around. I really didn't trust whitecoats, but what choice did I have? I knew the kids wouldn't like sitting around. According to Fang, they had been running around with the humans getting gifts and things. Those were sitting on the floor around the walls of the hospital room. We were stuffed from the meal we'd just had so eating was out. I stood up.

"Let's go for a flight," I said. "Oh wait. Fang your wing." He quirked his lips and waved me off dismissively. Men.

"I'll be all right. I'll just stay here and make sure they don't turn on us," he offered. I smiled and kissed his cheek. He knew me too well.

"What about the wingless?" Jeb asked.

"I'll just carry you if you want?"

"We'll stay too then. Enjoy your flight," he replied. I smiled at him too and got directions to the roof from Doctor Alverez. We really needed a good flight. Hopefully my flapping wings wouldn't pull at my injuries.


	45. Chapter 45

"Wait!" Omen called. "You should go by a window. There are workers on the roof." I looked at him curiously and then shrugged.

"All right then. Doc, where's the closest room with a window?" I asked.

"The closest unoccupied room is five doors to your left on this side of the hall," he said.

"What about the closest occupied?" I prodded.

In a tired voice, Jeb cut in, "Max, leave the sick celebrities alone. You don't have to go out the closest window. You can walk a few more doors over." He pinched the bridge of his nose and then rubbed his face. I smiled.

"Just seeing if you're paying attention," I replied. He looked up at me, surprised and then I led the flock out the door. Jeb wasn't used to me being playful with him anymore. He had lost that privilege ages ago when we found out he was with the whitecoats. Now, things seemed different. I was starting to get over my anger, and eventually the flock would follow my lead, like always.

"Max, I want to stay and watch," Nudge said when we reached the empty hospital room. "It's amazing and I wanna make sure Iggy's gonna be okay."

"Fang is watching over him," I replied, watching Gazzy hop up on the window ledge and unfurl his wings. They were still just as huge as the last time I had seen them back in the half-built skyscraper in New York. It always surprised me to see such a large set of wings on such a little kid, but it was another one of those random mutations we tended to get. You know how these things are.

"Yeah, but I wanna see what Mike's doing on the computer. That program sounds awesome!" I rolled my eyes and nodded my head at the door.

"Go on. And be careful," I called as she darted into the hallway. She waved at me and headed back to the room Iggy was being cut open in. My poor guy. I wish he hadn't denied the anesthetics, but I was also glad he had. Our time on the island was good for us. It made us stronger, smarter, and just this side of crazy paranoid freaks. In our line of work (running for our lives from evil doctors who had their hands in pretty much everything everywhere), that was a good thing.

Angel took off after Gazzy and I followed her. It seemed we would be the only ones going for a flight today.

Omen sat silently in the hospital room watching the doctors and Mike operate on Iggy with glassy eyes. His thoughts were turned inward. Mistress had found him. How or why, he did not know. What he DID know was that she had him unconscious for an unknown amount of time and now, there was a familiar chant always in the back of his mind. It was already beginning to drive him crazy.


	46. Chapter 46

**so i was stuck for a while (as you all can tell) so i asked the readers on the maximum ride website to give me suggestions. i only got one, but it turned out to be a good one :-) so, the next couple of parts are coming to you courtesy of the suggestion from Keely aka Jake ¤ §™§ ¤©****from the site. THANKS KEELY :-) happy reading yall :-D**

"Forty five degrees right, ten degrees down!" I called, and followed my own directions. After a few minutes of flying for fun, Gazzy and Angel begged me to play follow the leader with them. For us, it was a game I had invented to help us fly together better and to teach the kids how to listen to me better. I glanced back and corrected Gazzy.

"I said ten degrees Gazzy, not eleven!"

"Maaaax," he whined. I laughed and did a spiral. They followed me like cars on a train with me as the engine. After a few more minutes of that, they got tired of playing and flew their own routes.

We flew for hours swooping around each other. The kids had probably not flown at all while I was out with morphine and exhaustion. That was three days of no flight! I could hardly imagine that, especially after those months in the new organization's kennels. Luckily I was out cold for those three days. After two hours though, I had to take a break. It was only three days after I broke ribs and punctured a lung. Even for us bird kids that was a bit early to be flying for long.

"I'm gonna take a break!" I called to Angel and Gazzy. "Make sure I can see you, okay?"

"Okay," Angel replied, nodding. Gazzy rolled his eyes but nodded as well. I smiled and circled lower and lower until I reached the roof. I didn't really want a hard landing. My injuries were giving me trouble and a jarring landing would only make it worse.

I laid out on my back, looking for any of the workers Omen had mentioned. Maybe they already finished with whatever they doing because there was no one else on the roof. Then I watched my kids flying joyfully high above me. They were practicing the face to face flying maneuver, spinning around and laughing. I didn't like laying out, helplessly like I was, but it was the most comfortable position I could find. The morphine had worn off a few minutes into our flight and the ache had steadily grown worse until I knew that any more flying would further my injuries. Soon my eyes drifted closed, despite the pain and I fell asleep.

Fang watched with worry as Mike typed rapid speed on the computer they had given him while the doctors stood still, holding the wire against the chip. They had already discovered through trial and error that the wire wouldn't stay there on its own. The doctors took shifts so that whenever one hand started shaking, someone new would come and hold it in place. This went on for hours and the worry was starting to wear off. Iggy was going to be fine. Besides, Max was the one that usually worried. It wore away at his spirit to be the one doing the worrying gig.

"I-I am going back to the roof," Omen stated, standing up, "I am of no help here and I can gather more solar power." He left without any replies and Fang watched him go, suspiciously. Since when do robots stutter? And weren't there workers on the roof? He stood up and moved to the door.

"And where are you going?" Jeb asked.

"I gotta pee," Fang answered and stepped out into the hallway, looking both ways. Omen had gone left. Fang could see him only a second before he switched to warp. A second after that he heard a male scream in the hallway, even though no one was there. What was going on? Fang had a bad feeling about this.

Omen lied and left, wincing at the stutter. Robots do not stutter. Or least his model did not. He stepped out into the hallway and walked in the direction of the roof. The words in his head seemed louder and more demanding than before. He did not want to go through it all again. He had to get away, to think before something disastrous happened. He walked normally for a moment, then the words started screaming and he took off in warp, screaming wordlessly back. He had to get OUT OF THERE.


	47. Chapter 47

**okay and this one is to make up for not posting for so long. again, this part is courtesy of keely's genius suggestion and if you want to read her comment, here it is:  
"_um well lets see the uh wats her name ok watev the creator of Omens name is made him get that hum again 1st time it said to kill Max and he fell in love with her so he tried to take loverboy aka Fang away from her but it didnt work to well cuz Max saw and saved his life while dying and coming back to life and so this time he tries a new tactic uh Max, Angel, Gazzy and Total? sry cant remember if he came or not were coming up to the roof to land who(m?)ever lands first b4 Max Omen grabs them holds their mouth and holds um something that could hurt them oh um actually make it Angel that gets caught she uses her mind to talk to Fang but he already sensed it that part of the flock was in trouble so he started heading out when Angel contacted him and told him to come fast she was in trouble and he thought im coming im almost there Ang then he uh gets up there somehow b4 Max and Gazzy does and um ya thats all i got right now_"  
as you can probably tell, i've edited it some, but still, let's give a big round of thank yous to keely for helping me get started again so i can bring more dramatic parts of this story too you. :-) i believe this is the last one that's still part of her idea, so the next ones will be either springboarded off of her idea or something i originally planned but didn't know how to get there. THANKS KEELY :-) okay here's part forty seven yall. happy reading!**

Fang walked out into the hallway, ignoring the surprised looks of those inside the hospital room. They had heard the crazy scream too. Left led to the window Max and kids had gone out of. It also led to the roof according to the doctor's instructions. Maybe Omen really was going to the roof. Hmm.

"Well?" Jeb prodded. Fang peeked his head back in the room.

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you going to the bathroom or are you just gonna stand there in the door?" he asked. Fang glanced back out in the hallway. If Omen really was going to the roof, then there was nothing to worry about. Fang was just being paranoid. It was kinda weird to be acting as worried and paranoid as Max.

"Don't have to go-"

_Fang! Max is in trouble. Help! Omen's got her!_ Angel screamed into his head. Or maybe Fang's instincts were exactly right and that idiot robot had tricked them AGAIN!

_Where are they, Ang?_ Fang thought.

_On the roof. He's got something sharp against her neck! Please, hurry!_

_I'm on my way._ He felt Angel leave his mind and glanced back in the hospital room.

"Max," he said and charged towards the roof, recalling the doctor's instructions from earlier. He barely glimpsed the humans, Total, and Nudge exchanging worried, surprised looks before he was long gone, headed towards the roof and Max.

Omen ran in warp all the way to the roof, screaming back at the words in his head. They grew steadily louder and louder, but when he exploded out of the door leading to the roof, screaming, the words stopped abruptly. He did as well out of surprise. Why had they stopped?

He looked around the rooftop and froze, his eyes landing on Max spread out on top of some machinery on the roof, her eyes closed. She had provided him with a perfect target. Even a hundred feet away he could hear her slow, even breathing and her slow heart rate. She was sleeping and judging from the way she clung to her ribs, was hurting from her injuries. He would never get a better chance to do what the voice said, to make it quiet.

I woke up, screaming from a nightmare. Someone had attacked me and held the rest of the flock at bay with a knife to my throat. It had seemed so real that I was shivering from fear. I froze when I realized part of it wasn't a dream. Someone DID have knife to my throat and my shaking had only caused the knife to edge into my skin, creating a thin line of pain.

"Stand up, Max. Very slowly." I knew that voice. I just didn't know if they were good or bad anymore. Right now, it seemed like they were bad.

"Omen," I whispered, trying not to move my throat to much. "What-"

"Stand, Max," he ordered. "Please." I rose, carefully so I wouldn't push the knife in further. Since when did the bad guys beg you to do what they said?

"I'm up," I said, still softly. "Why are you doing this? I thought we got rid of the programming when you killed me before." I started very subtly looking around, seeing what of our surroundings I could use to my advantage and whether or not Angel and Gazzy had seen me and if they were okay. I saw two birdlike specks in the sky and held back a sigh of relief.

"Stop, Max. I know what you are doing," Omen commanded. "Eyes forward. No moving." I froze. Darnit!

"What are YOU doing?" I prodded.

"M-Mistress was here. Sh-she did something to me. And now, there is a voice inside my head. It SCREAMS for me to kill you Max. I do not want to." After this, he broke down in sobs, but the knife never wavered. I realized that like the lock pick thing earlier, the knife was just his hand reformed. What got me though was that he was stuttering, and... CRYING. Robots don't do that, especially bad robots, and especially, especially robots who have poor blending speech patterns and are about to kill you.

"Mistress?" I asked, using a soothing voice. Maybe I could talk him out of this.

"Mistress is the one who created me. She was here, on this roof and she did something that made me loose consciousness. When I woke up..." He started crying again and I rolled my eyes in frustration.

"Can you put a plug in the waterworks?" I asked.

"I do not want to kill you, Max, but I will go crazy otherwise and my information would be of no use to you and the flock. That is the only reason you allowed me to stay." Wait a minute. Since when does holding a reformed hand-knife thing to someone's neck mean you DON'T want to kill them? He was sending me some serious mixed messages here.

"Max!" Fang yelled. Omen twisted, sliding an arm around my waist from behind so I went with him and put me between him and Fang. He held the knife closer to my neck and his hand started shaking. Jeez, couldn't Fang have come earlier? Maybe say, when Omen HADN'T had a knife to my neck?


	48. Chapter 48

"Max!" Fang yelled again. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Ju-just don't come any closer, okay? He's really upset," I replied, leaning back against Omen to try and put some distance between me and the shaking knife. That would hurt a lot more than a little pressing. It would tear me up.

"Hush!" Omen screamed and I winced. That was a little close to my ear.

"He's holding a KNIFE to your throat and you're worried about HIM?" Fang asked incredulously.

"Fang, please," I said.

"I said, QUIET!" I squeaked when Omen's hand slipped and added another nick in my skin. And of course there was the fact that he had just ROARED two inches away from my super sensitive ear. Fang looked angry as hell, but he stayed put and shut his mouth. If he had kept at it, I would've looked like someone tried to hang me with a rope made out of razor blades.

"Omen," I whispered. "Who is Mistress?"

"Her name is Alexia, Alexia Vasquez. She created me," he replied. Thankfully my calm questioning made his shaking hand straighten out. Phew.

"I know she created you. You told me."

_Max, are you okay?_ Angel asked in my head. I glanced up, making sure not to move my head and saw they had come closer.

_I'm fine, sweetheart. Please don't land. He's a raw nerve just waiting to be pushed._

_All right._ I smiled slightly and winked up at her the best I could. Omen's grip tightened. Grr.

"Max, help me," Omen begged. "The command is getting loud again. It knows that I do not want to hurt you. Please."

"You could let go of me," I offered.

"It is too strong. You must find a way out of this." At least he wasn't crying anymore. I didn't even know he had tear ducts.

"I could fight you-"

"That would only make it worse." I looked around and thought, my gaze landing on Fang. He was staring at us with anger and fear. Not a good combo in this position. I had to think. Normally, my job was to go in and kick butt, but now, fighting would only make things worse. I had to get out of this on my brains. Hopefully they were still in good working order after the mindless months on the island and in those kennels.

"Max, what's going on?" Fang asked.

"His creator was here, Alexia Vasquez. She did something that made him pass out and programmed him to kill me again," I explained. "THAT'S why I'm worried about him. He doesn't want to do this. He's CRYING." Now Fang looked confused, but less murderous towards Omen.

"He needs to fight it," Fang stated.

"It is stronger this time," Omen replied. "It screams instead of whispers." Omen started shaking and I leaned back again, trying to avoid the knife.

"Omen... Control your arm," I said softly, making sure to draw out my words. Slowly, his hand steadied again and I held back another sigh of relief. I glanced at Fang again and winced at his face. I wished I could kiss away that fear and worry and anger, but I was being held by a crazy robot who didn't want to do what he was being forced to do by his maker. I looked around again and felt my face light up with an idea. If it worked on me and Fang, maybe it would work on Omen.

"Somebody get some handcuffs or something so we can hold him still." That was about when the rest of my family came up, everyone except for Iggy, that is. Mike even still had his laptop. When I spoke, several of them ran off to find some. Fang quickly explained the situation to the others and they all looked at me hopelessly. That was when another idea came.

"Mike, you were able to shut down the chip in Iggy, right?" I saw him nod.

"Do you think you can go in and shut down whatever's making Omen do this?" Mike thought for a few minutes and Omen's hand started shaking again. I reached up to steady it, careful not to pull his arm away in case that set him off.

"I could, but I'd need a schematic of his system." Darnit again.

"I have this. It was downloaded into my brain so that I could repair myself if anything was damaged," Omen stated, his voice was growing even now. There was hope! Doc Alverez and Jeb reappeared with two or three sets of handcuffs. Now all I had to do was get free. Now that was the easy part.

"I'm going to turn around now, Omen. Please don't cut me up. Everyone be ready." I heard the sound of handcuffs jingling and some people stepping forward. Omen drew his knife away from my neck with what seemed like great effort. His arm was shaking again. I slowly turned around, my only thought being 'please let this work'. Then I reached up and kissed him.


	49. Chapter 49

Omen froze in shock in my arms and then, very slowly he started to put his arms around me, his knife turning back into a hand. When he started to pull away, I yanked him tighter against my lips and he relaxed, taking control of the kiss. It was working! I signaled at the others and they came forward quickly, snapping all three sets of handcuffs on him, where his hands were resting on my lower back.

As soon as I heard the last click, I ducked out from under his arms and backed up several feet, right into Fang. Omen looked around in shock and then at me. I would have laughed if I wasn't so worried about how Fang was because of me kissing Omen and if he hadn't just tried to kill me even though he didn't want to.

"Max?" he asked. I smiled reassuringly at him and watched my entire flock lead him away. Right now, he was too surprised to argue, but later I knew he would start fighting to come kill me. I decided I would stay away from the hospital room until someone told me Mike had deprogrammed him.

Fang still had his hands on my hips from when he had balanced us when I ran into him. I turned just as slowly as I had with Omen and looked up at Fang, worried. Was he mad at me?

"Fang?" He had a glazed look in his eyes and was staring over my head at where Omen had held me. That wasn't a good sign. He looked down at me when I spoke.

"You kissed him," Fang stated, still in shock I suppose. I was just shocking everybody today. I glanced down and blushed. How would I set this straight?

"Yeah, it was the only way I could think of to get away without making him worse," I mumbled. "It worked, didn't it?" Blood trickled down my neck and reached up to touch it, wincing when my fingers brushed over a cut. I was sure getting tired of being attacked.

"Are you okay?" I asked. He finally focused and got a good look at my cuts.

"I'm fine. J-just surprised." Then he pulled me close, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and burying his head in between his arms and my head. I put my arms around his waist, squeezing him just as tightly.

"I thought he was gonna kill you again. I wouldn't be able to handle that. Are you okay?" He pulled back and gently touched the cuts where Omen's hand-knife had touched me. That was one sharp knife.

"I'm fine. Just scratches." He smiled and kissed me, then pulled back frowning.

"What?" Jeez, was he gonna stop kissing me now because I kissed Omen?

"You taste like him," he explained. I rolled my eyes.

"Okay then. You don't have to kiss me anymore," I declared and started walking towards the little building with the door to the rest of the hospital. Fang jogged to catch me up and grabbed my wrist, spinning me around until our lips met again.

"I can manage," he said, slyly after he pulled away, leaving me dazed. I laughed and we kissed again, deeper with tongue. It had been too long. First the crowded island and then our isolated time in the lab. I missed kissing Fang and he knew it.

We backed until I hit the door on the little building and he pushed against me, pinning me between him and the door. His hands strayed from my hips to my breasts, his mouth from mine to my shoulder. I guess near death experiences were the trigger that got him to be so bold. I would have to remember that for later. For now, we had to stop. I didn't want to do anything in broad daylight on a roof right after we had escaped from the whitecoats.

"Fang," I gasped when his tongue passed over one of the cuts on my neck. He pulled back and looked at me in concern.

"I'm all right. You just gotta watch out for all my injuries," I replied, breathing hard. Before I could finish, he smiled and bent towards me, pushing our lips together again. After all, I had landed on the roof because my injuries were giving me trouble.

I slid my hands up the back of his shirt and scratched the joint where wings met skin, knowing how itchy it could get there and how good it felt when someone scratched that itch. He groaned and rested his forehead on my shoulder.

"Fang, we have to stop," I mumbled, trying to ignore how good his breath felt on my neck and his hands against my skin, under my shirt. "We're on a roof." I stopped my hands and moved them to his chest, still touching skin so I could push him away enough to see his face.

"I don't want to relive the scene from the island," I added. Fang laughed and kissed me, letting his hands slow and moving them to my lower back. He leaned our foreheads together and sighed.

"Thank you," he said.

"What for?"

"For stopping me. I just had to make sure you were still alive," he explained. I laughed and hugged him, my hands still on bare skin. I didn't want to entirely back off. Fang blushed. Hey! Did you all read that? Fang BLUSHED. My Fang. Ha.

"So, do I still taste like Omen?" I asked.

"Nah." I smiled and we leaned against each other happily. I had survived yet another brush with death and Fang was making leaps and bounds in the not-an-emotionless-neanderthal department. I just hoped Mike would be able to deprogram Omen before he got his second wind.


	50. Chapter 50

**darnit! i told you all i would try and post every other day not one every other day ago (or at least on the max ride website i did) and i'm already posting about thirty minutes late. okay, i'll try harder next time. anyhow guys, this is the big FIVE OH. that's right... FIFTY PARTS. whoo! as you can probably tell, this one is gonna be a LOT longer than the first one. we haven't even gotten to the main plot (which i will start writing as soon as i figure out what it is :-D) congratulations for sticking with me all this time, you know through thick and thin, through writing blocks and writing splurges. CHEERS hehe ;-) anyhow again, here's part fifty yall. enjoy! and review please (please-y please?)  
**

We were sitting on the roof's edge, watching the sun set just like back in New York when Nudge came to get us. All three of us walked back to the hospital room with Nudge gushing about Mike's awesome hacking powers. Ugh. I just had to hope her thing for him would go away quickly.

There was another bed in the room with Omen on it, not moving. Iggy looked more human (duh!) and peaceful and I could see where the bandage was covering his stitches through his shirt. I gently pulled up his blanket and glanced at Omen. Would he get cold too?

"Robots don't sleep," Fang grunted. Maybe he wasn't making HUGE leaps and bounds, but he was getting there. It was a full sentence at least.

"I turned him off so he wouldn't attack while I worked on him," Mike explained. I ignored the strangeness of the sentence and sat down in one of the chairs and the rest of my family pulled up their chairs in a semi-circle around Mike who was standing, kind of like the setup for show and tell or a briefing.

"There's good news, kinda good news, more kinda good news, bad news and really bad news," Mike stated when we arrived. I noticed with annoyance that Nudge stood with him.

"Start down and go up," I replied.

"Okay, really bad news: I wasn't able to stop any new commands from coming in and apparently they can be sent in through a signal to somewhere. It's too temperamental for me to nail it down."  
"Temperamental?" Fang asked, eyebrow raised.

"Like when your computer freezes or when the Internet shuts off without warning. I don't understand it, and we're gonna have to deal until I do," Mike explained. "Now the bad news is that I wasn't able to completely get rid of the command to kill you, Max. You need some kind of clearance card to slide through something in his skull which is something we don't have. ID cards are the worst when you don't know who's clearance is required. Now the kinda good news is-"

"Alexia Vasquez," I cut in. "That's his creator. She's the one that reprogrammed the command. Can you go off her name?"

"Maybe. I'll have to see. This technology is SOOOO ahead of our time. I kinda wish I had been part of it's creation. Anyhow, while I wasn't able to get rid of the command, I was able to change it some. See, they've programmed levels of attack into his mind. Pretty much, I've spent most of the last few hours decoding his system so I could get in there and lower it to 'seriously damage maximum ride' and it would take days to get it down to the next one. I could keep working on it, but we need to get those trackers off of you. Other kinda good news is that while Omen assured me the trackers I found in him no longer had any towers to send signals to, I cut those off as well." I was glad Mike was keeping the terms as non-computer tech-y as possible. My head was already spinning from all the information, its implications, and you know, my broken ribs, punctured lung, concussion, etc, etc, etc.

"And the good news?" I prodded.

"The good news is that I cut off Iggy's tracker chip." I groaned and slouched deeply in my chair, covering my eyes.

"At least we have SOMETHING to be happy for," I growled. After a moment, I sighed and sat up straight again, looking around at everybody.

"It's getting late. Let's all get some sleep," I said. "We'll start up again in the morning. Doc, you think you could get us a ton of extra blankets and pillows?"

"W-we have quarters for celebrity families. Most of our patients aren't from Spain and want some family and friends to stay," Dr. Alverez offered.

"No thanks. I think we all would prefer staying together," I replied, glancing at the others to make sure. They all nodded at me or smiled or yawned. That was good. I probably wouldn't be able to sleep if they were all in different rooms in this whitecoat beehive.

"I'll go get them," he said and left. We all moved our chairs to the edge of the room, lining up the chairs in a pattern to create makeshift beds, facing right, facing out, facing left with the number of chairs between the two facing each other changing according to the height of the person that was going to sleep there. Luckily, the seats were flat so you weren't sleeping with your body all curved up and down to fit the seats. We would've just slept on the floor if the floors weren't hard tile and hospitals provided thicker blankets. After all, we were used to roughing it, just with thicker stuff. Besides, a line of chairs is always more welcome than the cold tile floor.

Doctor Alverez returned with two nurses, all three of them carrying a pile of pillows and hospital sheets. I hated those things. They always smelled so antiseptic, just like hospitals and evil genius labs. He wished us good night and left. Everyone, even the humans did the bedtime stack and we all sacked out.

Well, almost all. You know me, guardian of the flock, savior of the world, and most paranoid worrywart ever. I had to think and I had to take on guard duty since no one else had volunteered. That's right. Leave the wounded kid to stay up all night and kick any incoming bad guys' butts.

When Omen next 'woke up', I would have to be beat up BAD. Ugh. I really was, very truly getting tired of that. Either that, or we could leave him off until Mike brought down the severity of the order about a dozen levels. Which of course would put off turning off our trackers, and would also put us in the hospital for far, far too long. I didn't like staying in one spot too long. After all, whenever you're lost in the woods, the first thing people say to do is stay put so someone can find you. The problem was, I wasn't lost, I was hiding. This wasn't the woods, this was the entire planet. And the people searching for me weren't family or friendly forest rangers. They were killers.


	51. Chapter 51

**hey everybody :-) wow, so there's ups and downs with this whole every other day thing, while it gives me time to write and you all to catch up, it's hard for me to hold back when i'm really feeling like writing, and get it on time when i don't. hmm. well i'm trying anyways. i wrote this about two seconds after i posted part fifty and i was just dying to get it to you so i could write part fifty two, so i kinda wrote it like a filler so then this one isn't very long or eventful, but it's something, and since i'm feeling so like writing and this one doesn't have much happening, i might post a second one today if i get it done. no promises though. so... happy reading :-)**

Despite my best instincts, we had to stay. Mike worked tirelessly on stopping our trackers and when he got the chance in between opening us up and sticking wires in us, he worked on Omen. I think he slept less than I did, and that's saying something. But then again, the first week I wasn't at my best being on morphine half the time (Doc finally convinced me to take it when I very nearly punctured my other lung) and I was still healing. I really hoped Mike was able to bring down the level of Omen's programming again because I did NOT want to get all beat up and hurt right after I finished healing from the last time.

By the way, I did say 'the FIRST week'. We stayed at the Spanish celebrity hospital for almost a month. Ugh. Combine claustrophobia, people-phobia (whatever that's called), and my usual paranoia about being captured and I was just a bundle full of nerves.

We took turns getting our chips ended. I think I said there was at least one in every one of us, but actually it was more like there was at least ten. I was just trying to keep my head from exploding, but I'm just about to that point so who cares? Mike wouldn't work on someone again until everyone else had been operated on so they wouldn't lose mounds of blood over and over again. Even with our fast healing capabilities, that wouldn't be good.

He was able to finish two or three of us a day, so every two to four days, you would see me laying down on the table, trying not to squirm away from the doctors. I refused the morphine every time. You know how I am. I wouldn't even let myself stay down for more than an hour after they were done with me. The hour was only so the wound could heal enough that it wouldn't rip open when I moved.

Only a few chips in each of us turned out to be trackers. Even Mike had no idea what the other ones were for. They reminded me of the one Nudge pulled out of Iggy's head. Were they possibly preventing more of our powers from developing? If that was so, they could stay in there. I wasn't ready for any new magical powers just yet. Maybe when we were fighting for our lives, I would regret that, but it was better to be familiar with what you have than be overstocked with what you don't know. Or something like that. Isn't that what Jeb taught me once when I was little?

Also, a few of the 'chips' turned out to be more tubes of that super healing stuff that had fixed both Iggy and me. I voted on leaving those in as well. I was surprised I still had any in me after the whole fiasco with Omen shooting me. It was weird though. Like, I was just a puzzle piece in some big game or something and someone knew what all would happen. Wow, I'm getting too philosophical for my own good. I was going to have to get Fang or Iggy to come fight with me soon.

Speaking of Iggy, he had one panic attack while we were there. He had several at the new organization too, something the whitecoats were fascinated with, but like Jeb predicted, they were becoming far and few between. Thank goodness.

Okay, enough filler-y type goodness. Let's get back to the story.

I gritted my teeth, every muscle fighting against itself to stay still. After a while, the pain kind of numbs out like you get used to having a giant whole in your side, but they were stitching me back up. We had been there three weeks already and all of us were starting to look like Frankenstein. Doctor Arias, who took care of us when Doctor Alverez was busy, snipped the extra bit of thread and started spreading cloth and medical tape over the stitches.

"Es finish," he said. Doc 2 wasn't as good at English as Doc Alverez was, but he sure tried.

"Great," I groaned already wanting to sit up, but waiting. I didn't want to stretch the stitches and my family always yelled at me if I stood up right away. Plus I was tired from all that NOT kicking the hell out of these whitecoats' butts.

Fang was always nearby while I went through this, trying to get me to laugh, unless they were operating nearly my head or stomach. Then he just held my hand. Brave bird kid. I was surprised he still had a hand left to hold after three weeks of holding my hand while they cut me open. I think Fang knew I wanted to sit up, because he put his hand on my shoulder, what was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but what everybody really knew was to hold me down if I tried to get up. Grr.

"I'm not moving, Fang," I sighed. "You can relax." He smiled at me, but didn't move.

"Okay, now I am moving because you're trying to hold me down," I stated and sat up, hiding the wince of pain that wanted to escape. Fang's hand did no good this time because they had operated near my shoulder and he didn't want to push down on that and hurt me. Doctor Arias shook his head and left, bringing the nurses with him. We wouldn't start on Iggy who was next (cause I went last so the others could be worked on first) for a few hours. Mike would work on Omen for a bit and sort through the information he had found on this chip. Unfortunately, this one had turned out to be one of the ones that wasn't a tracker so the whole operation was pointless.

Mike was now running on three computers because the one didn't have enough memory. And these were BRAND NEW COMPUTERS. With 2000 gigs of memory. These chips really were high tech.

"Max," Jeb sighed. He raised me for two years so he knew not to push me. It would only make me extremely stubborn in the other direction.

"Close your eyes," I said to the room at large and barely gave them time to get their eyes shut before I took off the hospital gown, which was covered in my blood, and pulled my shirt on over my bra. They had let me keep my pants on for this chip operation.

"Okay," I said when I was covered again. Fang rolled his eyes at me and I stuck out my tongue. Immature, me? Naw.

"I'm going to the roof. Now's the time to fly if you've been wanting to," I said and left the room, ignoring their worried, annoyed faces. I had another rule while we were here that you couldn't fly without another person and/or me, Fang or Iggy on the roof or in the air with you. I didn't want anybody captured without me knowing it, and we could protect the younger ones (not like they needed it, but still). With my magical eyes-in-the-back-of-my-head (really, I just used the reflection in the glass of a door across the hall), I saw them exchange glances, but my entire flock stood up, and after another round of looks, so did my humans. All except Mike, Nudge, and of course, Omen.

"Let's go then. And you guys be careful," I said and took off after Mike and Nudge nodded. I was starting to get the suspicion that they weren't just working on Omen and our chips while everyone else was gone. After all, several times Nudge's hair had been mussed and they always gave each other these knowing looks. Maybe I SHOULD use reverse psychology on them. Hmm. Hey, don't give me that look. It's just a thought!


	52. Chapter 52

**okay so i'm having major issues with this whole every other day thing, so today i'm double (and maybe even triple) posting to makeup for my super huge need to write and the fact that i can't post again for two days. okay? enjoy**

Nudge watched the others go before rushing back to Mike and throwing her arms around his neck. He laughed and hugged her back, then stepped back. They were together now, sorta.

"You know how I feel about this," he said. "You're too young. And Max will kill me." Nudge pouted and twirled. The cafeteria had GREAT desserts and Max wasn't always around to monitor her sugar intake.

"I'm only four years younger than you, maybe. I might be twelve by now," she replied. He sat down behind one of the computer screens and kept working.

"Yeah, but that kind of age difference isn't accepted when we're this young. If you still like me when you're eighteen, then we'll be together, but right now..."

"I know," Nudge sighed and plopped down in a chair next to him, crossing her arms. She liked him, he liked her, but he was fifteen and she only eleven, maybe twelve, but they weren't sure. Sigh. If only one of her superpowers, was to become a few years older. Maybe if she took out on of her chips... Nah.

"Nudge help me, I think I'm starting to break through," Mike exclaimed. Nudge shot forward in her seat and glanced over the computer screens. It looked like they were only a few time-based firewalls away. She started typing right away, glancing at Mike and occasionally Omen as she worked.

* * *

"Do you think Mike and Nudge are together?" I asked. Fang and I were flying together high over the others, watching them from above. He spiraled and then cruised on a thermal, thinking.

"I don't think so. Mike, he's kinda sleezy, but he's honorable too. She's a lot younger than him. He might be afraid of taking advantage of her or something," Fang answered. I stayed on the thermal while he rose up and then dived a few feet below me, spiraling some more. He really missed flying. His wing had only healed about two weeks ago, but because of my rule, he couldn't get out much even with him volunteering to take the kids out every chance he got.

"Fang, look!" Angel called. He stopped his spiral toward the roof and watched while Angel and Gazzy spiraled together, holding each other's hands like a double helix, their wings out like helicopter blades. I laughed and Fang gave them a thumb's up.

"Great," he grunted and flew lazily back to me. I rolled my eyes.

"What?" he asked.

"Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?"

"Grunt single words when you're not talking to me," I explained.

"I do that?" I gave him a look and then did a regular 360 scan while he thought up a good answer. It better be a good answer. There was a time when he used to talk like that even with me. There was a squeal of laughter from the roof and I glanced down. They were playing kemps, Jeb and Mom on one team, Iggy and Ella on another. Akila sat watching, barking when they got especially excited. I was too high to see the cards, but it looked like Ig and Ella had just one. I smiled and made a wide circle, Fang keeping with me.

"Well?" I prodded after a while.

"I guess I just don't have much to say," he stated. I glared.

"Yes you do. You talk to me all the time. And that doesn't mean you can't ever use full sentences."

"Well... people don't want to talk to me as much when I do that. It kinda filters out who really wants to talk and who's just blowing air," Fang replied.

"Well, that makes sense. But you don't do that with me."

"You don't blow air." I smiled. Fang was staring down at the roof, sharply enough that I looked too. Nudge had come out and was talking animatedly with the others on the roof. She always talked like that, but her face looked more serious and she WAS supposed to be helping Mike with Omen. She left him alone in a doctor's hospital room with a homicidal robot. Something was up. I raised my eyebrow at Fang and he nodded. We soared towards the roof, calling Angel and Gazzy down to join us.

"What is it, Nudge? What's happening?" I asked. She turned to me and took a very deep breath, before starting again.

"We got through the last of the firewalls which were on a timer where you had to break through them in a certain amount of time or the whole system would lock down so Mike and I used all three computers and both of us were typing really really fast then all of our screens went blank and now Omen's sitting up and I think we got the order in his head to go down another level, but he's all confused and won't tell us what the new order is because he's not used to being asleep so long so Mike's working on him and I was supposed to get you guys." She spoke all in that one big breath then took another one to re-ventilate herself. I looked around at the others who were all watching me with worried faces.

"Well, let's go see what the new order is. If it's DOWN a level, it can't be worse than being seriously damaged," I said. They all nodded and we headed inside. At least, that was my hope.


	53. Chapter 53

"Omen. I need you to tell me what the voice is saying now. What do you have to do to Max?" Mike was speaking slowly and clearly. I hadn't gone in yet, per orders of everyone else. Grr. I hate following orders, but they didn't want Omen to see me until they knew what he was supposed to do to me.

"I am Omega 2.0. Who is Omen?" I felt like crying. In trying to save my butt from being broken, had we lost Omen? I sure hoped not, but at least it would save me from having two guys in love with me. God, that sounded bad.

"Omen is your nickname. Remember?" Iggy said, stepping forward to look in Omen's eyes. I could see through the reflection. "When we first took you in, you said that was your name. Then we found out you were a robot and you asked us to call you Omen anyway." Fang was leaning against the wall by the door inside the room. There was only a few inches of wall between our backs. I knew, because he had his arm around the door frame and was holding my hand.

"Omen is a strange name. Why would I tell you to call me this?" I couldn't take it anymore and stepped into the room, dropping Fang's hand. Omen's eyes shot to look at me, studying.

"This is Maximum Ride," he declared.

"That's right. It's me, Max. You wanted to be called Omen because you didn't want to be just a copy of someone else, remember?" He stared at me, which was starting to get kind of unnerving.

"Omen?" This caused a reaction in him, though not the one I was expecting. He stood up, walked forward and pressed our lips together. While I was still reeling from surprise, he snapped the bone in my arm between our chests and I screamed into his mouth. Fang came forward furious as Omen backed off. I caught Fang's arm with my good one, gritting my teeth against the pain. It was my right arm even. Grr.

"I think," I panted, "That was... th-the next level down." Omen inclined his head.

"The voice is gone now. It said, 'temporarily cripple Maximum Ride'," he stated.

"You didn't have to kiss her," Fang snarled. I rolled my eyes. Darn testosterone. I turned and kissed Fang to shut him up and it worked beautifully. He was reeling almost as hard as I was when Omen stepped forward. Ha!

"Can someone get the doctor please? I need a cast or something." Gazzy ran off and I sat down in one of the chairs, holding back any signs of pain. I looked down and this time let out a small whimper. The bone was poking out of my forearm. I think no one would mind if I showed a small amount of pain for that. Fang sat down next to me, held my good hand and put the other around my shoulder. I guess he wasn't planning on viciously murdering Omen. Or at least, not now anyways. I would bring up the subject of kissing later when Fang wasn't in the room. I didn't think it was all that necessary either, but I wanted my arm treated first.

Doctor Alverez arrived soon with a nurse and a rolling thing with medical supplies. He tutted over my arm and asked the nurse to get a few more doctors or nurses, anyone with strong arms. I looked askance at him.

"We'll have to set the bone before we do anything. With your fast healing capabilities, I'd rather do this sooner than later." I nodded. Gee, THAT was going to hurt.

"Do you have like... cloth or wood or something for me to bite on?" Doc nodded and picked up a wooden dowel about an inch thick and wrapped a washcloth around it. I waited until the nurse got back with some pretty buff looking handsome guys. Hey, an upside! Except for Fang's mad jealously issues. Hmm. Okay, forget the handsome/upside thing. And DON'T TELL FANG.

I put the cloth covered dowel in my mouth and wrapped my left arm around Fang's waist. While I could break his hand, the worst I could do to his waist was bruise him. They made me lie out on one of the hospital beds and since I wouldn't let go of Fang, he went with me. I buried my head in his chest and stuck out my arm, letting the doctor's angle it so they could get it right the first time. I had two big strong guys behind me, holding me down with hands on my shoulder and waist and another guy holding down my feet. It seemed to me like I was being a big baby. It couldn't possibly hurt worse than those headaches I used to get or having broken ribs and a punctured lung. I was wrong.

I screamed and screamed, and my teeth ached with the pressure I was putting on them by biting the dowel. That was only the first pull. They had started setting it, but Doc and the nurse hadn't been strong enough to get it all the way back in place, so one sharp piece was sitting on a nerve in my skin, making the pain go on forever while they went to get another strong guy to help them. Fang was holding me almost as tight as I was him even though, I was down to just whimpering while the bone was sitting on that nerve. It was ten times less painful than them pulling the bone around in my flesh.

The nurse came back with another doctor, I heard, "One, two, PULL!" and then I passed out, screaming, from the pain. What happened to three?


	54. Chapter 54

I woke up a few hours later feeling groggy and like my right arm was a hundred pounds. A quick inventory showed that there was an IV in me again, feeding me morphine, and there was a bulky cast from my hand to my elbow. It already had everyone's signatures on it. I smiled at a heart Angel had drawn and a cat next to Nudge's name. There was a bomb near my wrist with the boys' names scrawled up my thumb. Fang's was just his name and winking smiley face. There was Total's paw print, and then the humans just had their names spread out between the drawings of the flock. I didn't see Omen's but maybe it was on the bottom which I couldn't see because the morphine was too strong. I couldn't lift my cast-heavy arm.

The morphine seemed a bit much actually. It was just a broken arm. No one had realized I was awake, but I made a sound to get their attention. Time to figure out what happened.

"She's awake," Mom said and grabbed my good hand. I smiled then used all my strength to touch the IV wire and raise my eyebrow. I didn't think I could talk with that much morphine being pumped into me. I could hardly see anybody through all the colored clouds their words were making (ya, you know what I'm talking about).

"They were afraid you would be in too much pain when you woke up to function," she answered. I rolled my eyes and tugged uselessly at the wire, looking up meaningfully. Mom smiled.

"Of course. I'll get someone in here to take it out." I sighed and raised one side of my mouth then fell back asleep. I woke up again, later. The hospital was quiet and dark. I figured it was night now. I looked and saw the IV was gone. I was just fighting the grogginess of waking up.

"Hello?" I whispered. Fang appeared.

"You're awake?" he asked, just as quiet. I nodded and fought to sat up without using my arm. Still sleepy and probably some of it was the remnants of morphine in my system. Ugh. Did I ever tell you guys how much I HATE sleepy medicine? It's completely debilitating.

"Yeah, I'm awake. What happened?" I asked. Fang reached out and helped me sit up. I smiled gratefully.

"You passed out. The doctors were afraid it was because of all the blood loss the last few weeks so they gave you morphine so you could recover. Doctor Alverez told them how you would be up and moving within a minute if they didn't put you to sleep for a while."

"And he was right," I growled and started standing up. I wobbled and nearly fell over, but Fang caught me.

"I'm fine," I sighed. "Just still some morphine in me. I need to pee." He quirked his lips and kissed my forehead.

"I know. You're super Max. Just let me hold you a sec, okay?" I smiled and leaned against his chest, sighing. It felt good to be in his arms. It was also a relief since the world was starting to spin. Maybe I had been loosing more blood than I thought. I needed cookies and juice or something. That's what they gave blood donors after they donated blood, right?

When the world finally settled and I felt I could walk for real this time, I leaned back and looked up at him. Then I kissed him on the mouth. When we broke apart, the world was spinning again. Darnit!

"So, feel free to kick Omen's butt for almost killing me, breaking my arm, and kissing me without my permission any time, okay?" I said. Fang laughed.

"He explained why he kissed you. He said when he saw you he remembered everything, including that you kissed him and got the idea to do the same thing to catch you off guard to follow his order. He knew you would've kicked his butt if he just tried to break your arm without surprising you. And it was also to stifle your scream."

"You AGREE with him?" I screeched, then covered my mouth and glanced around at the rest of my family. They were all sleeping in the multiple chair beds again. The flock shifted in their sleep, but that was it. I think this whole hospital deal was wearing them out. Fang smiled.

"Oh I will kick his butt, because he took advantage of the situation, but that's it." I laughed and walked out into the hallway. Unfortunately, they hadn't given me a room with a bathroom so I had to walk down a few hallways to go.

I waved to Fang before I left the room. I was looking in the room when I left and turned into the hallway, but when I looked ahead, I nearly fell over. Iggy had Ella pinned against the wall, but I don't think she minded seeing as how she was kissing him just as hard as he was kissing her. I gasped which made them look at me in fear, surprise, and embarrassment. Then I grinned. I had REVENGE on my hands. Muahahahaha!


	55. Chapter 55

Ahem, anyhow. The fear on their face overcame the other emotions when they saw that sly smile on my face. I darted back in the hospital room and started waking everybody up as fast as I could. Fang didn't know what we were doing or why, but he helped and once everyone was awake, I led them all back to the hallway where Iggy and Ella hadn't moved an inch.

"Ella?" Mom asked, in the exact same voice she had used when Ella brought them in on me and Fang. I felt like cackling evilly, but that seemed wrong, so I just beamed at the couple and winked. Their faces were bright read and Iggy glared at me. Fang started laughing which got everyone surprised, then we all laughed, even Iggy and Ella.

"Okay, you got your revenge," she gasped. "Now go." I smiled and strolled down the hallway. I still had to pee. The rest of my family went back into the hospital room, shaking their heads and laughing or mumbling angrily. Guess who was mumbling angrily. If you guessed a certain traitorous/not-so-traitorous father figure whitecoat scientist sperm donator of mine called Jeb, you were right. Double ha! They were probably going to get the talk as well.

The whole thing explained a lot of things that were confusing before like Ella helping Iggy calm down during his panic attacks or Iggy seeming to have trouble talking when we were all together. Oh and how everyone else seemed to always try to avoid them when they were alone together. I guess everyone but me knew. Oh well. My revenge wasn't as sweet as it could be, but still, it was nice. Now all I had to do was figure out how to use the bathroom with my right hand held immovable inside a solid, heavy cast. Hmm.

When I got back, Nudge was pressing for details about how they got together and Mom was trying to keep Jeb from exploding with anger. HeHEE. I felt like laughing, but didn't want to direct his attention to me. Fang held out his arms and I went to sit on his lap. Yeah, I know. All sorts or girly and mushy, but I liked being held by Fang and I was still unsteady from the morphine and all the blood loss. Iggy looked like he wanted to make some comment about me sitting on Fang's lap, but didn't say anything. I had leverage. Muahahahahahaha! Okay. I'm done laughing evilly now. Okay, one more: muahahaHA! NOW I'm done.

I noticed that Omen was nowhere to be seen. I really hoped he wasn't still upset about the whole trying to kill me and then breaking my arm while kissing me. Yeah, I was still upset about it, but he was part robot and he didn't have any other choice. You would think he would be unaffected or something, but that's what made him different than the first Omega, what made him Omen. He could feel. Weird, huh? Me defending a robot that tried and succeeded to kill me multiple times (the tried part anyway) and also tried to kill Fang. It was the same thing with Ari. Hmm... Maybe I had whatever that syndrome was where you started liking your kidnappers or whatever. Wouldn't that suck? Me LIKING the School? Oh I'm sorry, not the School anymore. Too bad they never told me what to call them instead.

"Where's Omen?" I asked.

"Charging." I glanced at Fang when he answered. At least I had a supportive boyfriend. Sorta. I waved to everyone, made my excuses and left, making sure to send Fang a look. He understood what it meant. I wasn't mad, I was grateful. I wasn't going to cheat on him, I was going to sooth the person who broke my arm. Ugh. This was even more twisted than usual.

I found Omen sitting on the roof, solar panels sticking out everywhere. He didn't turn to look at me when I came through the door on that little building hut thing, but I knew he knew I was there. After all that was a LOUD door. I sat down next to him and looked out at whatever he was looking at. I think he was actually just staring into space because the only thing in front of me was one of the machines on the roof that ran the building.

"Are you okay?" I questioned.

"I am like that machine," he stated. Or maybe he was really staring at a machine. He sat up straight and stared at me.

"I am supposed to be emotionless. I am supposed to be controlled easily by whomever knows the right combination of numbers and letters that will unlock my system's defense mechanisms. While the second one is true, the first is not. This... gives me great." he paused searching for the right word. "Grief and even THAT I am not supposed to feel. Without realizing it the scientists made a large mistake. They gave me too much brain and too much heart." I frowned and sat up straight as well, studying the machine.

"Yeah, well, the whitecoats always make mistakes. Why do you think Iggy was blind? And Gazzy has bad gas? They wanted us to be perfect advanced human beings and they messed up. Especially on me. It drives them CRAZY that I know how to backtalk." Omen chuckled before I went on. Point one for Maximum Ride! Whoo!

"Besides, you have a face. You have all five senses, you breathe even if you don't ALWAYS have to, you can. You dream and feel and make mistakes. In my book, that makes you human. All we have to do is get Mike to shut down the override thingy and then no one can get in and mess with your head." It was breezy up there on the roof, so I spread my wings out and let the wind pass through my feathers. Mm, that felt good. It was like flying without all the hard work. And of course, the views but that was okay. I wasn't in the mood to fly right then. Maybe in a moment or two, but not then.

"You are kind, Maximum Ride."

"Well, duh! I'm supposed to be the 'savior of the world' or something like that. They, whoever 'they' are, wouldn't pick a bully for the job." He laughed again and I felt like doing one of those low victory punches. Yahaa! Hehe, anyhow.

"Would it make you feel better if I called you 'O' more often? I know you said you liked that nickname." Jeez, now I was starting feel too nice. After all he HAD killed me before and recently broken my arm, which still kinda hurt.

"That is all right, Max. I will be fine." I smiled and then punched him right I the nose. I broke it, because there was the sound of wrenching metal and a few seconds later, something whirring. I watched in awe as his nose straightened itself out on his face, all by itself. Wouldn't that come in handy in the middle of a fight?

"Why did you hit me? I deserved it, but for which offense was this?" he asked, acting like the moving nose was nothing. Oh you know how it is. My nose fixes itself all the time. Nothing to worry about. Bah! I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

"For kissing me. That was a cheap shot and you know it. Don't do it again," I said, voice low and steely.

"Of course, but you kissed me first." I growled and he held up his hands in surrender.

"You should have fallen in love with a shark," I snarled and stood up. Really the snarl was to cover the laughter trying to escape, but I couldn't let him know that. I stalked off and Omen was still laughing. Hey! Look at me. I got a ROBOT to laugh himself to tears. Aren't a talented little bird kid?

**now this one was kinda weird because you know, she's talking with omen and trying to make him feel better, but... there relationship is... intriguing to me. i wanna see where it leads (of course not romantically, i promise they won't end up together) but you know? it's just not your usual kinda friendship. have you ever read anita blake vampire slayer? well there's this guy named edward (don't squeal twilight he's a vampire hunter not a vampiRE, okay? he's a mercernary, an assassin, a trained killer) and he's close friends with anita the main character, even though they both know that if he ever got a high enough offer to assassinate her, he would do it and they would kill each other without a thought. only this one, omen (who would fit in as edward's part) is a little more emotional than edward who's pretty much ice so we'll see. tell me what you think. love you guys.**


	56. Chapter 56

**okay guys. I ACTUALLY MADE IT ON TIME TODAY!!! YAY!!!!! hehe. anyhow. this one is LONG. two in a half pages on my word processor so when you sit down to read, you best be ready to sit down and read. :-) now there's some faxness (sweet faxness, not really kissing or anything), there's a cliffhanger. "no way, goingcrazy. you NEVER write cliffhangers" "i know but, it was time after all i just figure out the main plot for this story!" "NO WAY!!!" "yeahway! that's why i'm super excited and i wrote a super long part." hehe anyhow, as you all can probably tell, i'm super hyper because i FINALLY have a main plot (let's have a round of applause for goingcrazy. it took fifty six part which is as long as the first one, but she finally managed to figure out what the heck she's doing here) okay, enough hyper babbling. without further adieu, here is part fifty six. enjoy :-) oh and comment. that too :-D i mean it's not like i write this story only for the benefit of reading what you all have to say about it. (ptah, you know the truth, don't let this crazy girl tell you otherwise. her name should be "gonecrazyandnevercomingback" hehe)**

**oh and for reference to above about the "goingcrazy" thing, that's my username on the maxmium ride website. i wrote this there, but i thought you all should see this random hyper babbling thing too.  
**

We returned to the hospital room and found Mike working on Iggy. They must not have done anything while I was passed out on morphine and pain. That meant we lost time. I would kill them for that later. For now, I let him go about his work.

Two days later, it was my turn under the knife again. There I was, lying on the table, straining to not strain under their steady hands when the world started spinning again. I looked around in fear, trying to hide the fact that my eyes wouldn't focus on anyone and I felt like I was going to hurl. What was going on?

"Her heart rate increased exceptionally," one of the doctors announced, "Max, you need to calm down. You're bleeding yourself to death." That must be it! With all the blood loss from my previous surgeries and my broken arm, I must be reaching my limit. Or past it.

"Spinning," I gasped. They had just finished cutting open the next hole which was in my left hip so the pain was raging through me and making speech extremely difficult.

"She's lost too much blood," Fang stated quietly. "She's saying everything's spinning." Good ole Fang reading my mind and staying calm, though I was sure that if I was able to focus on him, I would see some fear in those dark eyes of his. There was probably some fear in my eyes too. And dilation going on maybe since the world had stopped spinning, but I was seeing spots everywhere and it was getting darker.

"We need to stop the surgery," another doctor said.

"No!" Mike yelled. "If we stop now, we'll just have to do it all over again another time and Max will be pissed because we didn't finish and wasted time." Go Mike! Uuuugh. Now I was seeing stars and my hearing and peripherals were dimming away.

"Decide," I managed.

"We'll have to do a blood transfer," the first doctor said.

"But we don't have any blood with bird DNA in it!" I felt like snarling at them, but I was just on the edge of here and There, the world of unconsciousness. Not much I could do on that thin line. I sure was tired of passing out though. I really hoped I wouldn't.

"Use my blood," Fang offered. "It's the same kind and she donated for me before so we match." I smiled feeling warm fuzzies in my stomach and heart. Speaking of fuzzies, they were clouding my vision so much I couldn't see anything at all. Whatever choice they decided, it better be quick.

"All right. Doctor Arias, hook him up. A direct line from one to the other. We don't have time to mess with a blood bag." I felt a prick in my right arm, right above the cast in the crook of my elbow a few seconds later. Within a few minutes, the world started coming back in focus. Another few minutes and I could even focus on Fang sitting in a chair at my side with a tube running directly from my right arm to his left one. Wow. There was some big cosmic thing in that about how our blood was one and the same and our hearts were physically connected now, but I was too tired from nearly passing out and straining against my reflexes and instincts so that I didn't make them cut a jagged line in my hip to think really hard about it. Fang smiled comfortingly at me and I smiled back then winced when the doctors deemed me healthy enough to start probing my hip with the wire. Apparently this one was a chip.

All I did for the rest of the procedure was stare at Fang and hold still. I kept my heart rate low because after a while, I realized that I could bleed Fang to death as well as myself. It helped that he kept those calm, warm eyes on mine, holding my attention. Maybe this was what I had to do for the next surgery. Just stare into Fang's eyes and bada-bing bada-boom I had a sedative that wouldn't knock me out as far as battling and paranoia goes for hours. It would just keep me calm.

That seemed to be the turning point for our time at the hospital. After that, and of course, fixing Omen so he would only break my arm and a couple days after my blood sharing with Fang Mike was able to block any overrides on Omen's system (in other words no one could go in and order him to kill me anymore), things sped up and we were out within a week.

Do you know how abso-freakin-lutely great it was to get the hell out of that hospital? I think I nearly doubled my warp speed with the flock because we got back to the states in half the time it took last time. Or maybe that was because I had four days of rest and no wounds (or mostly no wounds, though my arm did heal quickly) before I left this time and the last time I only had a single night's rest after carrying everybody in warp speed for hours and being tortured with experiments for months.

I don't know why we were going back to America. The Voice hadn't said anything in a long time, not since they told me to ask Mike what his idea was. It just felt right somehow, and of course, we were familiar with the good ole USA. Spain and Portugal were a little too much of a big change in culture and language for me to handle. Plus that women, Alexia, lived in Spain or was in Spain the last we knew. That was too close for comfort.

I didn't stop flying until Arizona. That was where Jeb and Mom said they wanted to be for their new identities and lives while we ran and fought the new organization. Oh guess what. The cell phones we bought in Greece DIDN'T work in Arizona, United States of America. Go figure.

"I have contacts here," Mike offered. "I could go and get each of us an untraceable phone, though it's gonna cost big money for ten of those things." We were hiding out in an cabin at a ski resort. Can you believe there was a ski resort in Arizona, the really extremely hot desert? It was summer so no one was there, but it was well-stocked with food. When Angel was kidnapped, we had stayed in one of these before. We just had to be careful not to eat too much like last time.

"Ahem," Total interrupted. "Eleven of those things. I'm going to have one too."

"How are you even gonna dial?" Gazzy asked, skeptical.

"He will cause he's talented like that, UNLIKE you," Nudge replied. They started arguing and I stepped in between.

"Get eleven, Mike. We'll handle the cost. Just figure out how much, okay? How do you even have contacts in Arizona? We met you in New York and Fang saw you in California."

"I have my ways," he answered vaguely. I rolled my eyes and sat down on the bed. It was a three room cabin. This room was combination bedroom, kitchen, living room. The other two were the bathroom and the pantry. Fun with nine bathroom-users, a robot, and two dogs. I wasn't exactly sure if Omen used the bathroom or not. I never saw him go, but then I didn't see him twenty-four seven.

"I suppose you want one for the big dog too?" he asked sarcastically. I pointed to the door.

"Just go. Hurry up. It's getting dark and I want everyone here when night comes." He rolled his eyes and left, allowing some chilly air in.

Nudge was busy making the other humans over. They were looking less and less like themselves every hour. Yes, I said hour. We had arrived at the resort the night before, woken up at eight am and it was two pm now. Nudge had been working on them since nine, minus time to eat lunch. The hour between waking up and her starting the makeover was time she took to wake up, eat breakfast and unpack her supplies, or at least, the ones she was using right away. I was afraid she was enjoying it just a little _too_ much, but I didn't mind. After all we had been through since the flyboys attacked and we'd been captured, I wouldn't begrudge her a little fun with beauty supplies. As long as she didn't come after me with those hair cutting scissors and hundreds of tiny makeup brushes.

While Nudge worked, Jeb was schooling Mom and Ella on their new identities, names, birthdays, relationships (friends, romances, acquaintances), family day trips, even their social security numbers which Mike and Nudge the computer geniuses had made up on a dime. That was what Jeb was using for the technical stuff. Fake birth certificates, passports (they had been to Ireland and Peru according to their story), credit history. Ella had even recently just earned her learner's permit (her birthday in real life was while we were with the new organization and we hadn't yet had a chance to celebrate it. To make up for that, Mike gave her the learner's permit and also put her sixteenth birthday in four days. They would celebrate it then. Too bad I would have to miss it, but that's how running for your lives goes). It was kind of boring and I was restless already, so I was pacing the fifteen or so steps from one side of the cabin to the other, driving everybody crazy. It would probably be longer if I went the other way, but Nudge was in the way for that.

"Max. Let's go for a perimeter flight check," Fang offered. I smiled gratefully and we both stalked out the door. I trusted everyone who was there to take care of themselves and each other. Omen was 'sleeping' on the couch. He really truly needed to be dropped off in Hawaii or something so he could get tons of sun for those solar panels of his. He wasn't being wasteful though. While he was sleeping, he had set himself (how weird was that sentence) to draw all the images he had seen at the top of all the papers he had read in the office in the lab in the hope that one of them would turn out to be the logo of the new brand of whitecoats and from there with our two computer whizzes, we might be able to figure out their name. Pretty cool, huh?

Fang and I flew in silence, spiraling out with the cabin we were staying in as our central point and staring at the ground and air for any sign of baddies. After a while, I started watching Fang instead. Ugh! Horrible, horrible lovesick Maxie, but I couldn't help it. You know. That "cosmic" moment we shared when he offered blood up for me. It just made things worse. He was staring at the ground with concern, moving his head so his eyes stayed on the same spot. Okay, I was intrigued. I followed his line of sight and saw a group of guys picking on someone. They weren't our baddies, but they were baddies all right.

"Those guys look familiar," I mumbled. Fang glanced at me then back down. We started circling above the fight. It was a group of four or five guys, all picking on one girl. This looked REALLY familiar. I focused my eyes and zeroed in on the faces of the guys. Hey, weren't those-?

"I'm going to help her," Fang stated and dived towards a forest close by. Oh no! I recognized this now. These were the same guys that had picked on Ella when I saved her before. And the same woods I had run through and fallen down a big hill in and been shot in. These guys had a gun!

"Fang!" I called and dived down after him.


	57. Chapter 57

**So i know it's been a while since i last wrote, especially with a cilffhanger being the last post i did, but this is to ASSURE you all that i haven't given up on it. as long as people still want to read it, i will keep writing it. that's how it goes. anyhow, the reason i was gone so long was because i was visiting my dad for a week-long visit before school starts up again. by the way. WHOO i'm officially sixteen. :-D had my birthday july 29. hehe yay. and i drove around a whole hugemongous country block without running anything over on my FIRST TRY!!! so i'm excited. :-) anyhow. happy reading all and don't forget to review. i love reading yalls reviews**

He dived straight at the ground, wings folded tight against his back and with only a hundred feet left before the forest and Fang showing no signs of stopping, I was freaking out. He would either smash into the ground or smash into the trees if he didn't pull up soon.

"Fang!" I screamed just as he disappeared under the foliage. Crap. I increased speed until I reached the forest then snapped my wings out. Ow. Even with the bubble of air I had cupped under each wing, I slammed into the ground and the only thing that kept me from breaking anything was my training with Jeb. I held my wings out as long as I could, then just before meeting the ground, I tucked them in and rolled. Oof. Fang was already up and running out of the trees and into the group.

"Double crap," I mumbled and stood up, groaning all the way. It was too soon after having so many bones broken for me to be doing this. Broken bones tended to ache for a while after they were healed, even for bird kids and they were all moaning at me now. And I was winded from the bad landing.

I ignored all the complaints and charged after him. Too bad I couldn't run in warp like Omen could.

"Nick!" I called, this time using his fake name since the humans would be able to hear me. Fang looked back at me then kept running. Excuse me! Did he just IGNORE me? Uh uh, kiddies. No one gets to ignore me and my warnings without MY say so. And I didn't say so. I sped up, but Fang reached the group about ten seconds ahead of me and by the time I got there, things were already looking bad for us.

"And here comes goth-boy's girlfriend," one of them sneered. Crap. I slowed down and plastered a big smile across my face, looping my arm through Fang's. Hey. They already thought we were dating. It didn't matter that we actually were because by the time I got through with Fang for ignoring my warnings, we wouldn't even be in the same time period.

"Hey boys," I said perkily. "What's going on?" I looked up at Fang in what I hope looked was a coquettish way while secretly sending him the stink eye.

"Your boy's causing problems." I smiled sweetly. Sometimes it was fun to play a part, but right then I was scared. The School almost NEVER used guns on us, but these guys... well, you've read the first book.

"Surely not. I'm Melanie by the way. You can call me Mel." I stuck out my hand and shook the leader's hand. I could tell he was the leader by the way he stood in front of the others and did all the talking. Pretty leader-ish don't ya think?

While the leader made introductions, I flock-whispered through my teeth at Fang, "These are the same guys who attacked Ella. They have a GUN." I felt him freeze in surprise behind me. "Why are you doing this anyway? Aren't I normally the one who saves everybody?"

"It seemed a little unfair to me. Especially now that I know they have a gun." The boys moved around so that I could shake all of their hands and I saw the girl behind them, being guarded by two other guys. She couldn't run away like I had hoped. Her face and arms were covered in bruises and I saw some cuts. The guys had big ole class rings on their hands and blood dripping off of those rings. Guess where the blood came from.

"And what's your name?" I asked, looking pointedly at the girl. "You're friend here didn't introduce you."

"Sam. And he's not my friend," she snapped. Hey back off. I'm trying to save you butt here.

"Is Sam short for something?"

"No, just Sam." I smiled, then put on a concerned face as if I had just seen her wounds. The bullies turned to look at her and behind her and I sent her a wink. Either she was a really good actor, or she didn't see my signal because she didn't react.

"What happened to you? You look like you just fell off a cliff," I cooed, reaching back and squeezing Fang's arm as a warning before I strolled to her. I wanted him to cover me while I went behind enemy lines. I gently touched her face and pulled back quickly when she winced.

"Yeah," said the leader. "She fell off a hill over in them woods and we were just bringing her home."

"S'not what it looked like," Fang growled. I turned around and sent him a calm down look.

"Yeah?" I asked, bringing their attention back to me and away from pounding on Fang. I wanted to get out of this without another big fight.

"Yeah," the leader grunted. I had already forgotten his name. Maybe it was Lou. Or Stew. Ugh, who would name their kid Stew? No offense to anybody, but that must be one of the hardest names to live with. Anyhow.

"Nick, let's go with them. We probably know better first aid then her parents do. Especially after all those fights you get in." I winked at him and smiled. He lip-quirked back.

"No!" the Lou/Stew yelled.

"Why not? She needs medical attention and I don't have anything here. Do you?" While he tried to think of a reply, another guy kept staring at me. Our cover might be blown.

"Hey ain't I seen you somewhere before?" straring guy asked.

"No. We're just here visiting my grandparents."

"With your boyfriend?" the leader added, liking this line of conversation better. "I have seen you before. You're that girl that beat up on us when we was picking on Ella." There were noises of realization all around and I felt like knocking my head on a wall. I squeezed Sam's hands and met her eyes. She nodded and went limp in my hands. I spun her around, wrapped my arms around her waist from behind, and then spun us both around, her legs flying. After a second, she started actually kicking the guys. Good because her legs without any extra force wouldn't have cut it. They fell down like dominoes and I set Sam down.

"You saved Ella?" she asked. I nodded and glanced at Fang. His brows shifted very slightly, but it was enough for me to know that he understood. Immediately he rounded the circle of fallen bullies and conked each of them on the head, hard enough to knock them out, but not so hard that he gave them a concussion or broke their skulls. Then he started searching them for the gun.

"What's he doing?" Sam prodded.

"Searching. These guys have a sawed off shotgun." Sam paled, but only for a second.

"So, do you know where Ella is?" Crap. How did she know Ella anyway? Wasn't Ella one of those loners?

"Haven't you seen her on TV with those flying kids and her mom?"

"Yeah, but all of them have been missing for months. It's almost been a year since the last time the flock did an exhibition. Haven't YOU been watching TV?"

"Don't like TV," Fang answered. "Got it." He held up the gun and sighed in relief. We would give it to the boys and they could use it for the bombs. Of course, they would get the gun on strict orders to not fire it.

"You don't like TV? Then, like, what do you guys do all the time? Do you just save loser girls from bullies?" she questioned. I was getting tired of this.

"TV is full of lies. We hang out with our family all the time and practice martial arts and make bombs and occasionally save loser girls from bullies. Now if you'll excuse us, we have to get back before dusk or else I'll be making myself a hypocrite," I snapped. She stared at me with dinner plate sized eyes while Fang and I ran back into the woods.

"You shouldn't have told her that," he whispered.

"She shouldn't have asked so many questions. It gets on my nerves." Fang chuckled knowingly and I felt about ten times more annoyed.

"You are in SO much trouble. You ignored me, which alone would make me kick your butt, but you ignored me while I was WARNING you to stay away or be careful."

"But, Max."

"I'm not speaking to you," I stated and took off in warp as soon as I hit the cover of the woods. Fang would have to run deeper so he wouldn't be seen by a curious Sam when he took to the skies. I was angry as hell, but still there was the niggling question; why did FANG go to save Sam?


	58. Chapter 58

I got back just before dusk and I had been flying warp speed. That meant Fang would be late. Hey, something else I get to yell at him for. Good because I was furious. Nudge had finished the makeovers. It was looking more and more like it was time to go. We would probably leave the next morning.

"My guys say it's gonna cost you fifty-five hundred," Mike told me when I returned. "Five hundred each." I nearly choked on my spit. Cute, huh?

"Well? You got the money?" he prodded. I nodded. We'd have to go to eleven different ATM's since the most you could take was five hundred, but we could do it. Remember how the Max Ride card mysteriously refilled every time you withdrew? But jeez five hundred a phone is a LOT.

"You sure they aren't cheating us?" Iggy questioned.

"I told you it was gonna cost big money," Mike replied. Iggy rolled his eyes and we all looked when Fang returned, soaking wet. Jeez I leave him alone for five minutes and he gets soaked.

"What happened to you?" Nudge asked. Fang shook like a dog does, splashing water everywhere then pointed at me.

"I got caught in her slipstream and it pulled me along for about a mile before dropping me in a giant lake." He shook again and glared at me. I put a hand up to cover my smile and attempt to hold back the laughter. The others might have laughed too if they weren't so surprised by him saying a full sentence with proper grammar and everything. Fang must be mad if he spoke full sentences in front of other people without realizing it.

"I didn't know Arizona had lakes," I replied.

"Well, apparently." He paused to wring out the end of his shirt. I hoped no one was planning on sleeping on that part of the floor, because I certainly wasn't gonna clean all that up.

"There is," he finished. Mom got up and handed Fang a towel from the bathroom. I didn't think that would do much good. Just the thought of Fang hopelessly trying to dry himself with that small hand towel was it. I burst into laughter and that seemed to be it for Fang.

"We'll be back!" he yelled and leaped at me, spiraling like our full-body kicks only head-first and at me. Before I could react, Fang crashed headfirst into me and wrapped his arms around my waist then we were flying through the window that I had been standing in front of. As soon as we were out of the cabin, he snapped out his wings and we lifted up, using the momentum from his jump to get us in the air. I couldn't help since his hands held my wings against my back.

"What are you doing?" I shouted, making sure my mouth was by his ear. I looked back and saw the others peeking out the window with shocked faces. I had to agree.

"What are you doing?" I repeated. He just smiled the scariest mischievous smile I had ever seen coming from Fang or anybody really. Then we were flying in warp. And I wasn't doing it!


	59. Chapter 59

**Hey yall! Look! I got it very very very very very very very early in the day and it's a longish post and it has fax and important events for the future and is the post after a cliffhanger so you all aren't dying anymore about that cliffy! I'm so excited. Omigoodness I love the end of this post. It might be my favorite part. So mushy and sweet. :-) anyhow, happy reading!**

I squeaked then blushed because I squeaked. Squeaking was not a Maximum Ride thing to do. We were in warp, but my wings were being held against my back by Fang's hands and I needed those to fly whether in warp or regular speed. Fang was still grinning at me as he twisted like a screw, making us go even faster. After staring round me in awe for a few seconds, I looked up (or down, I'm not sure) at Fang.  
"Are you doing this?" I asked. His smile grew bigger if possible and he pulled out of the corkscrew and into roller-coaster-like movements, going up and down in warp speed. I guess that was a yes.  
"When did this ha-" My question cut off when we suddenly weren't in warp speed anymore. Instead we were tumbling straight at the ground.  
"Fang! Get us up!" When I looked frantically at Fang, he was passed out with a nose bleed. Fang! What was going on? I wiggled out of his now weak grasp and grabbed him instead. Then I switched to warp so I could handle his weight. That's how I landed, going into warp to stop our fall then briefly letting us fall before catching us again with warp until we came to the ground and landed with a soft thump. This was too much like when he passed out from using his telekinesis. Was that how he flew in warp speed?  
I took off my jacket and my shirt, then put my jacket back on. My shirt would work just fine to clean the blood off his face and plug up his nose.  
"Come one, wake up Fang. I can't do this AGAIN," I mumbled while I cleaned him up and held the cloth tightly against his nose. It took all my will to not freak out when he started going invisible. I just kept steady pressure on his nose and waited. Awful, awful waiting. Luckily it only lasted maybe a minute.  
The first sign that he was waking up was when he suddenly popped into existence from a twitch. Then came a groan. And then, slowly, he opened his eyes and looked up at me. I sighed out silently and pulled my bloody shirt away from his nose to see if the bleeding had stopped.  
"I forgot about that part," he whispered. I felt my eyebrow rise up questioningly, but kept quiet. I could be patient. See?  
"What part?" I asked. Or not. Hey, I tried, didn't I? Fang sat up, rubbing his head with one hand and propping himself up with the other.  
"The part where I pass out and get a nosebleed." I rolled my eyes. Cause that explained everything.  
"Okay, part of what?" I tried. He quirked his lips at me, then noticed for the first time that I was wearing just a bra and an unbuttoned jacket on my top half. I could tell by the way his eyes widened and then fixed themselves determinedly on mine.  
"Part of being able to warp," he answered. Grr. He had reverted back to his caveman ways again.  
"When did you start being able to warp?" I asked. "And in fully explanatory sentences this time please." He smiled.  
"I don't know when. When you flew off after the whole thing with the bullies and that girl, I wanted to catch up with you and make things right, but you were in warp so I started wishing I could fly warp and while I was flying, I realized I was going faster and faster until everything blurred. Is that fully explanatory enough for you?" I punched Fang's arm and moved so that my feet weren't falling asleep under my butt and thought.  
"Where does the whole passing out and nose bleeding come in?" I prodded.  
"That's how I fell in the lake. I can only warp for a few minutes at a time before I pass out. I woke up before I drowned, but that means it was worse this time. If I was laying down long enough for your shirt to get that bloody, then I was out longer. And my head hurts. It didn't the first time." I sat and thought while Fang slowly started to recover from whatever had happened.  
"Ahhh, my wings hurt," he groaned, when he stood up. I'm sure you normal people use your arms and legs to balance when you stand, but we also use our wings if they're out. So in case you were wondering, that's why he suddenly started complaining about his wings when he stood up.  
"Turn around," I ordered and stood up too. My wings felt fine. He obeyed and I peered through the darkness at his wings and where they connected to his back. I couldn't really see anything with his black wings and black clothes, but when I reached out to touch his shirt, it was wet. On my fingers, it looked like blood.  
"I think you almost flew your wings off, literally," I stated.  
"What!" Fang shouted and started turning ridiculously as if he could see his mid back. I rolled my eyes and grabbed his shoulders.  
"Hold still and take off your shirt. I can't see with all this black stuff you wear." If he was Iggy he probably would have made some comment, but he took it off without a word. I turned Fang around again and leaned closer. The skin around where his wings attached to his body looked like it was covered in rips and the base of his wings were covered in blood. I picked up my shirt and began wiping away the blood to get a better look. His back hadn't stopped bleeding.  
"Look like it's MUCH worse this time," I said.. "It doesn't make sense. Your telekinesis wore you out, but the more you did it, the longer you lasted. It's like your getting worse at this power rather than better."  
"Maybe it's not my power," Fang wondered. "Too bad. I really liked flying in warp." He sounded wistful. I loved warp speed too, but it wasn't much for the sights. I leaned against Fang's back and put my arms around his waist, hugging him. To avoid the rips in his skin, I put my forehead against his shoulder rather than his upper back.  
"We'll ask Mom and Jeb what's going on," I offered. "Maybe they know." I wasn't mad at Fang anymore. I was worried about him. Too bad because it would have been SO much fun to yell at him about ignoring me and missing the curfew I had set.  
"I don't wanna go back yet," Fang stated. I nodded against his shoulder and sat down on the ground again. He sat next to me and put his arm around my shoulder. I needed to gather my thoughts anyway and Fang probably still needed rest. What I wasn't expecting was a kiss from Fang.  
After the first shock, I melted in his arms and kissed him back. It wasn't as scary anymore to consider dating Fang. It was still terrifying, but the happiness and the kisses and us being comfortable with each other again was worth the fear.  
After a while, we stopped kissing and lay down on the ground so we wouldn't crane our necks looking at the stars. And yes I know some of you are perverted enough to think we were laying down for different reasons, but have you been reading? We're not like that. Or at least (embarrassingly) Fang isn't. I could have fallen asleep, cuddled against Fang's side with his arm as a pillow and the stars as a blanket, but of course, we had to get back to our family. Flock didn't cut it anymore. Not all of the people I cared about and would sacrifice everything for had wings.

**now go back and read the last two or so paragraphs and you'll see why this is my favorite part. it's so sweet and faxy and mushy and ooh. hehe i feel warm fuzzies inside :-) okay guys, i'm gonna ask that you all comment (cause i miss reading tons of sweet and hilarious comments. some make me feel all warm and fuzzy or wanna cry and some have my family looking at me like i'm crazy because i'm randomly laughing. not like i don't randomly laugh anyways, but this laughter is louder and more amused than my crazy laughter that i get sometime. anyhow) also, as you all can tell i may or may not be posting another part today depending on three things:  
1. the comments i get--what they say about getting another post and how many there are  
2. whether or not i manage to actually WRITE another part today  
3. whether or not i decide that the sweet mushy faxy ending is a good ending for the day. i even considered making it the end of the story, but i don't know. still thinking about that. if i do decide that, then i'll rename this post as the sequel--part fifty nine--the last part or something like that oh and also if i decide that, then i would probably write a third just so i don't leave you all wondering forever what's going on with fang and his new power. this is just kinda a warning because i'm really really really leanign towards making it the end and starting a third story and if i did make it the end, i didn't want it to come as a sudden shock to you because i didn't even know. did all of that make sense?  
so, thoughts on everything above. and i do mean everything from my own talking to the actual part. thanks yalls**


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